New training at OCC aims to fill eye-care need

SYRACUSE — It’s so rare for Eye Consultants of Syracuse to come across trained, experienced ophthalmic assistants that when it does, the practice will sometimes hire the person even if it doesn’t have an opening.

“We look all the time,” says Heather Whitt, a certified ophthalmic medical technologist at Eye Consultants. “There is just nothing as far as training in this field.”

Whitt is hoping a new training program launching this fall at Onondaga Community College (OCC) will help her practice and others fill a major need for ophthalmic assistants.

Ophthalmic assistants often either educate themselves through books or through on-the-job training programs at practices like Eye Consultants. Whitt says she spent seven years attaining her current certification, which is a few steps beyond what an entry-level assistant would work toward.

“I did it myself,” she says. “It was not easy.”

The closest formal training programs for assistants, she adds, are in New Jersey and Vermont.

Eye Consultants approached OCC with the idea for the program after an internal brainstorming session, Whitt says. They solicited letters from eye-care professionals around the state to demonstrate the need for the program.

They received thousands of messages supporting the idea.

It was one of the strongest responses to a potential program the school has ever seen, says David Wall, director of corporate and public partnerships at OCC.

“It’s so unusual to have an industry come in like this,” he says. “This is exciting stuff. This is the way it should work.”

Ophthalmic assistants assist eye-care practitioners in retail optical dispensaries, medical offices, and hospital settings. They are trained to perform numerous diagnostic tests and can perform a variety of other tasks like contact lens instruction or assisting during eye surgery.

The training will begin this fall at OCC as a non-credit program, Wall says. The long-term goal is to develop a full degree or certificate program around the training.

The process to develop the full program should take a year or two.

There are simply not enough ophthalmic assistants in the marketplace, Whitt says. That’s one reason the program at OCC could draw students from around the state, she adds.

For practices like Eye Consultants, training new assistants is a major expense in resources and time. Whitt says it can take months before a new assistant is up to par.

The work itself is challenging, she adds. Ophthalmic assistants are often expected to anticipate a doctor’s needs and order certain tests without specific instructions.

That way, when ophthalmologists sit down with patients, they already have all the information they need, Whitt says.

Ophthalmic assistants are certified by an international body, the Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology. The OCC program will prepare students to pass the group’s initial exams.

The commission offers seven different certifications. Entry-level assistants can earn $13 to $15 an hour.

OCC’s Wall says he expects the initial non-credit program to launch with 15 to 20 students. The school must keep the class sizes reasonable since lab work will be a key part of the program.

The goal is to make sure students get plenty of practice with the instruments and equipment they’ll be using in eye-care practices, Wall says.

OCC is still finalizing a few of the program’s courses. The college plans to launch enrollment and marketing for the program soon, Wall says.

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com