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ASCO Updates ‘Attributes Report’ for Optometry Graduates
| November 9, 2011 12:24 AM |
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ROCKVILLE, Md.—The board of directors of the
Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) has accepted a new “Attributes of Students Graduating from Schools and Colleges of Optometry” report. According to the organization, the updated “Attributes Report” is a series of competency statements that broadly define the attributes expected of students graduating from any of the schools or colleges of optometry in the U.S.
“The revised report will be an invaluable resource for the optometric profession as a whole and the state associations in that it is a cogent and contemporary presentation of the attributes today’s graduates possess upon entering practice,” ASCO president Kevin Alexander, OD, PhD, said.
This 2011 report updates an initial report jointly developed by the optometric community and accepted by the ASCO board on June 20, 2000 and represents current thinking about the requisite competencies for new graduates of optometry programs and recognizes how educational program management is changing in all health care disciplines, ASCO said. As it explains, current educational program management is evolving with improved descriptions of desired educational outcomes, enhanced mechanisms for assessing attainment of those outcomes and expanding strategies that provide for ongoing scrutiny of individual and programmatic results while making appropriate adjustments to the outcomes and the techniques used to teach and develop them. The current attributes are classified into three areas: professional values and ethics; knowledge; and skill. They include areas such as a commitment to be actively involved in organized optometry and the community, the ability to recognize personal limitations regarding optimal patient care and practice management structures and strategies as they pertain to the various practice settings.
According to Jennifer L. Smythe, OD, MS, ASCO secretary-treasurer and a member of the Attributes Report Task Force, along with Kent M. Daum, OD, PhD, “The Attributes Report serves as a valuable tool for developing and revising optometric curricular outcomes and for educating the public on the full scope of optometrists’ knowledge base, skills, professional and personal attributes and competencies. The new document reflects contemporary optometric practice and includes interprofessional competencies.”
The entire
Attributes Report is contained in the Fall 2011 issue of ASCO’s journal “Optometric Education.”
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