At medical school, you should aim to leave your ophthalmic attachment feeling confident about the fundamentals of this branch of medicine. The Royal College of Ophthalmologists provides medical students and foundation doctors with the support to learn essential ophthalmology skills.
It’s important for all doctors to have basic ophthalmology knowledge and skills. Whether you’re a GP supporting a patient with sight loss or a foundation doctor seeing a patient in the A&E Department who has presented with an acutely painful red eye, ophthalmology skills are an essential part of patient care.
If you’re not sure what basic skills and knowledge in ophthalmology you should have, look at our which covers a full list of core clinical skills, knowledge and learning objectives to help direct your learning. This is simply a guide you should refer to your own medical school’s specific learning objectives for ophthalmology too.
For Foundation Doctors considering a career and specialist training in Ophthalmology read the So you want to be an Ophthalmologist? short career guide covering what you can expect from training and a career in ophthalmology.
As an innovative specialty, those working in ophthalmology have plenty of opportunity to pursue a career in academic research.
The College has created a curriculum for Undergraduates and Foundation Doctors, which can be found here.
The curriculum is intended to help medical students focus on what is important, to guide medical schools and to encourage standardisation of what is learnt UK-wide, and beyond. It was written with the hope that every medical graduate will have this core knowledge, sufficient to assess and manage a range of ophthalmic problems outside ophthalmology settings, and perhaps also inspire some to pursue the specialty
Student Ophthalmology Review Day
The knowledge you gained as an undergraduate can start to feel less familiar without regular practice. This refresher course is for medical students who want to revisit the essential skills in ophthalmology. By the end of the course, students should be able to competently assess patients presenting with an ophthalmic symptom and make an appropriate management or referral decision.
The next SORD takes place at the College on Friday 29 April 2022 but is currently fully booked. Another course will take place later in the year. Pleae check the Events page for further details.
