In June last year, our charity, The Hospital Saturday Fund awarded a grant to City, University of London’s Optometry and Visual Sciences Faculty. This donation went towards funding Medical School Electives, which would enable twelve second year students to attend the world-famous L.V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) in India.
This month, we received a comprehensive impact report from the faculty that outlined the need, purpose and successful outcomes of the financial assistance provided. They believe that the invested interest in the potential of these students will help towards improving the knowledge and career prospects of these future NHS optometrists.
While at LVPEI, students were encouraged to make notes and take advantage of all eye care cases and procedures whilst shadowing the optometrists and ophthalmologists. The four students that travelled to India over December and January visited the ‘Centre of Excellence’ in Hyderabad that sees over 1500 patients per day. The students’ daily activities consisted of clinical observation in a range of eye-health areas, from paediatrics to contact lens, glaucoma and live eye surgery, and often would be able to assist in examining or testing the patients.
These same students were also given the opportunity to visit the Bausch and Lomb School of Optometry. Upon visiting the innovation centre, they observed engineering students and optometrists working together to create prototypes that could potentially be life changing.
One final year student who received a Hospital Saturday Fund grant said that the opportunity to travel to LVPEI allowed her to “examine patients who had diseases that she had only read about in text books”, and gain inspiration on areas of optometry to focus on in the future.
To conclude, City, University of London noted the overall profound impact that the trip to India had upon building their personal and professional networks and sharpening their communication skills.
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