contacts CA Sign In

Course Descriptions – The Art & Science of Optometric Care: A Behavioral Perspective

The Art & Science of Optometric Care: A Behavioral Perspective

Course Details

35 Hours
5 Days
Course Audience:
Optometrists

Core Clinical Curriculum

Course Description

Prerequisite: None The Behavioral Vision Care (BVC) course has been the entry point into behavioral vision care for many optometrists worldwide. Vision is the dominant process in humans and the BVC course is built upon this. The attendees learn the core philosophy and how to put it into action. This includes understanding an expanded definition of “vision” as well as “function alters structure” and “most visual problems are problems of omission.” Attendees typically come away with a much broader understanding of the development of various refractive conditions and how to either prevent future negative shifts or how to guide the patient to less adapted visual conditions. Prescribing patterns are usually altered significantly so that the attendee knows how to use lenses in a much more powerful way. When can you prescribe something other than what you measure? When should you prescribe something other than what you measure? How far can you deviate from your measurements in either the amount of sphere or cylinder power or the cylinder axis or the amount of aniso? Why would you ever prescribe a lens through which a person does not see optimally sharp through? Why would some people have trouble adjusting to a prescription through which they see optimally well? What lenses optimize visual performance? Why would one ever prescribe prisms with the bases in the same direction (yoked prisms)? These questions and many more are dealt with directly in the first course of the core curriculum. Behavioral vision care has grown well beyond the Black Book Analytical. This course provides the participants with answers to the question “Why?” while providing the scientific and neurological basis for understanding human behavior. Participants will emerge with a new respect for the power of lenses as well as understanding the process and underlying physiological changes as patients build refractive and other visual conditions. Rather than being given a cook book approach to diagnosis and treatment, the goal of this course is the nurturing of master chefs of behavioral vision care.

  • Identifying the unmet visual needs of your patients.
  • A comprehensive study of behavioral optometry and the benefits it offers over general optometry.
  • "What Is Vision?," a discussion of the conceptual model underlying vision and the visual process.
  • The behavioral vision exam -- one participant will be examined to demonstrate the ease with which the analytical gives insight into the patient's visual needs.
  • "Milking" the analytical -- a step-by-step discussion of each diagnostic test, how to do it, why to do it, how to record it, and what it tells us about the patient.
  • Stress recovery, embeddedness, visual adaptations, problem solving, and other behavioral insights will be discussed in detail.
  • Stress Point Retinoscopy -- a critically important tool will be demonstrated and taught.
  • The relationship between posture & vision, from which a comprehensive understanding of the development of astigmatism , and the use of yoked prisms will emerge from.
  • The alternatives of care and how to present them includes an in depth look at compensatory lenses, lens treatment, and vision therapy.
  • The art and science of prescribing -- when to deviate from the subjective, why and how to prescribe for near.
  • Key practice management techniques to get you rolling right away. Building a successful behavioral optometric practice through communication -- reports, updates, in-office seminars, external speaking engagements.
  • Each participant will receive a Behavioral Vision Care I Manual which includes suggested readings and report samples and more.

* Courses begin at 9:00 am each morning and will finish at 5:00 PM. On the last day of the course we begin at 9:00 am and generally finish by 3:00 PM. Lunch is included in your tuition. (NOTE: If you have special dietary considerations please let us know at the time you make your reservation.)