 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Solomon Islands
With a population of approximately 470,000, and without permanent ophthalmologists or optometrists, the Solomon Islands is largely without refraction services. Unfortunately the ethnic crisis of 2000 stripped the Solomons of many medical personnel, including the country’s chief ophthalmologist. Fortunately a cadre of well-trained eye nurses remain and continue to provide the backbone to eye care in the Solomon Islands. Following a Pacific Regional Eye Care Meeting held in Fiji in April 2003, ICEE and the Fred Hollows Foundation agreed to fund a nine-day refraction training program for the Solomon Island eye care nurses. Fourteen Solomon Island eye care personnel and one Fijian nurse participated in the training.  The refraction training course was planned in consultation with local medical personnel, who assisted with the assessment of training needs, trainee selection and priorities for the course content. Relevant skills and knowledge necessary for refraction and the management and referral of more serious eye problems were included. The course focused on how skills and knowledge can be applied in the workplace and attempted to make learning as close to the real world as possible. A course manual with information, diagrams, examples, and step-by-step instructions was provided to every trainee for consultation during training and to be used a reference after the course.The main benefits of attending the course were perceived to be “the opportunity to learn something new” as well as “the chance to specialise in a health area that interests me”. One nurse wrote “I learnt a lot of new things - skills and knowledge which will really help me at my work with my patients.” All trainees passed the course and a mean score of 80% achieved on post course assessment indicated that the trainees successfully understood all topics. ICEE also provided six sets of refraction equipment to be used during the course and thereafter donated to provincial hospitals. Distance E charts and Pidgin near visual acuity eye charts, occluders and pinhole occluders were provided to the individual trainees. To support the delivery of refractive care, ICEE provided readymade spectacles to ensure that patients had access to the vision correction they needed. A seed donation of spectacles was provided by ICEE, and a rotating fund has been established whereby further spectacles will be ordered as required, and the small profit reinvested into the local delivery of services. Collaborators Fred Hollows Foundation, New Zealand |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
