The Stony Brook Ophthalmology Residency Program employs a competency-based curriculum to teach the 6 core competencies put forth by the ACGME and fully described in our handbook - Competency-based Ophthalmology Curriculum. The goals and objectives of each module will be systematically taught through an organized series of educational activities:
- Fully-supervised patient care
- Didactic conferences, and
- Supervised self-directed resident activities.
Patient Care. Clinic rotations, divided equally between the VA and Stony Brook Technology Park.
The first year, residents will concentrate on general eye care in adults and children. The clinics are designed to expose the residents to the fundamentals of the
eye examination such as refraction, common outpatient problems, and emergencies including trauma. First year residents at Stony Brook will see patients daily in a general or pediatric clinic. Two half days a week they will work with an attending in Optometry and Cornea/General eye clinic. Likewise the first year resident at Northport VA will concentrate on general eye patients including one day in a Glaucoma clinic and one half day in a Retina clinic. First years at both institutions will see inpatient consultations and walk-in emergency problems. First year residents will participate in a wet lab didactic program, assist attending surgery and perform simple procedures.
The second year, residents will broaden their diagnostic and therapeutic skills by rotating through each of the subspecialties located at Stony Brook. They will continue their general clinic but will also divide their rotation between Pediatric/Neuro-op clinics and ones that emphasize Retina-Glaucoma-Cornea-Oculoplastic diseases. Both rotations will include responsibilities for in-patient consultations and emergencies. More time will be allocated for assisting in surgery and primary resident surgical cases will include pediatric, plastic, cataract and glaucoma surgery as well as glaucoma and retinal lasers.
Both third year residents will spend the year at the Northport VA where they will be exposed to advanced ophthalmic medical care and surgery such as cataracts, anterior segment surgery, and plastic surgery. Residents will conduct general clinic Program Description by Year one and one-half days a week, retina and glaucoma clinics one day a week each, major operative surgery one day a week, and plastics clinic one-half day a week. They will also perform retina and glaucoma laser surgery. They will be given additional responsibilities for clinic operations and supervision of medical student clerks.
All residents attend the regularly scheduled series of Lectures and Conferences that systematically cover 15 modules incorporating the core competencies. Educational needs are balanced with service needs by providing protected time for didactic conferences. Briefly, this will consist of daily morning reports, twice weekly morning lectures, Wednesday afternoon conferences 3 days a month including a monthly pathology conference, a monthly Journal Club, monthly case conferences, quarterly surgical M&M, and monthly Grand Rounds. The didactic framework will also include a 4 week introductory lecture series; a structured wet lab curriculum with checklists; Will’s Eye Institute (second year); a Board review (NY Eye Ear), CORE East for second years, and attendance at the national and local meetings (third year).
Self-directed Resident Activities. Each resident will participate in completing online courses; submit a Thesis review and research project; maintain a Resident Portfolio; prepare casebased learning exercises; teach rotating clerks; and perform self assessments. Residents will also be involved in Staff and Residents Committee meetings to consider broader issues such as the curriculum, QA, and operational issues.
Duty Hours: Our program adheres to the duty hour regulations as per New York State and the ACGME. Oncall will be divided so that all residents get at least one full day off from all duties per week and weekend oncall duties are generally no more than once per month.
