Introducing Objective Structured Clinical Examinations for Undergraduate Orthoptic Education

Aim: Introducing the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) to improve orthoptic education and clinical competence including the clinical attitude and skills of orthoptic students.Methods: Subjects were thirty-one fourth grade orthoptic students from our department. Six basic examinations were included in stations for trial use of OSCE. The OSCE were performed and compared before and after the eight weeks clinical training. Ten items of clinical attitude and six examinations were evaluated respectively. Six experienced orthoptists evaluated students\u27 clinical attitude and examination techniques while they were performing simulated patient (SPs) examinations according to the evaluation sheets we designed.Results: After clinical training, both students\u27 attitudes toward SPs and examination techniques including correction of refractive errors improved significantly (p<0.05). However, the refractive correction score did not reach sixty. Attitudes toward SPs improved in eight areas out of ten. Safety procedures during examination and signaling the end of examinations did not attain a score of sixty.Conclusion: We were able to evaluate objectively the effect of clinical training on the clinical competence (attitude toward patients and examination techniques) of students by OSCE. Improvements in the evaluation sheets and crossed-check system are still necessary

Evaluation of Asthenopia Caused by Game Consoles

A visual function test and a questionnaire survey on asthenopia were performed before and after the use of a game console and compared to clarify the influence of the use of a game console on the visual function and asthenopia of healthy young people. The subjects were 20 healthy young persons aged 20.0 ± 0.5 years (17 females and 3 males). The near point, the rate of high frequency component (HFC) of accommodative microfluctuation, and lacrimal secretion were measured and an original questionnaire survey on asthenopia was performed before and after carrying out a task using a game console. The task was continuous playing of an action race game,‘MARIOKART 8’ (Nintendo) using Wii U (Nintendo), for 2 hours at a visual distance of 170 cm. The near point was 11.86D before the task and it significantly extended to 10.98D after the task (p < 0.05). The rates of HFC of the dominant eye before and after the task were 13.3 and 8.6%, respectively. Those of the non-dominant eye were 8.4 and 8.2%, respectively. And the lacrimal secretions were 21.2 and 21.0 mm, respectively. All the tasks showed no significant changes after each task in any parameter. The score of the subjective questionnaire survey was 14.6 before the task and it significantly increased to 34.8 after the task (p < 0.05). The task of continuous 2-hour operation of the game console significantly extended the near point and caused subjective fatigue

<Essay> New Educational Programs for Orthoptic students

Recently, the Japanese educational system has rapidly become more flexible. Legal regulations on educational curriculums for the medical professions have been amended. The Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced that it will amend the controls on the designation of training schools for orthoptists (ORT) in the near future. Educational curriculums provide valuable direction to each medical profession and should have contents which meet contemporary needs. To survive, present day medical profession training schools must create original educational and training courses that are attractive and match the needs of current society. Accordingly, those specializing in the field are developing unique educational contents. Orthoptics educators have developed new educational programs for orthoptic practices in which "scientific poster exhibition, " "simulation of visual disturbances, " and "interview role playing" are used to achieve the educational goals for the given scholastic year