Unique collaboration between UMC Utrecht and HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht: apprenticeship for optometry students
HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht' Optometry programme and UMC Utrecht's Department of Ophthalmology are entering into a unique collaboration. In a new LEER department, HU optometry students will provide patient care in the hospital, under the guidance of HU lecturers, the staff doctor and junior doctors. Lecturer Sigrid Mueller-Schotte: "Now this really is a win-win situation."
The germ of this project lies in the corona era, says Sigrid Mueller-Schotte, from the HU instigator of this cooperation. "The ophthalmology department of the UMC Utrecht had to limit itself to much-needed care at the time because of the measures. Our optometry students could no longer do internal internships at our GEZOND&WEL Centre, which had to temporarily close its doors. We then set up the TeleTriage project together." In it, students could do internships remotely: they studied patients' files and called them to discuss the complaints, to arrive at a proposal to the doctor under the guidance of an HU lecturer. For example, to see the patient in the short or longer term or to refer them to another healthcare professional. In this way, patients received the care they needed and the UMC Utrecht waiting list was eliminated. The project was a success. In fact, it ran so well that it was continued after the corona period. Now it is coming to an end after all, but not the cooperation. On the contrary. With the new LEER department, HU and UMC Utrecht are actually going to make it structural. "It is the first learning department in the Netherlands where a paramedical health profession and a specialism come together in a university centre," Sigrid says not without pride.
The whole spectrum
The students now divide their internships between the GEZOND&WEL Centre and the UMC Utrecht. Sigrid: "In our centre, people who want an eye examination can go for free. That includes many people with mild complaints, and people who want a contact lens fitting. At UMC Utrecht, on the other hand, it's about patients who are under treatment because of diagnosed eye conditions. Many have undergone surgery and come for follow-up care. In short, it is a very different patient group. Thanks to this collaboration, we can now train students across the spectrum; they encounter everyone they might later encounter in their practice. That's a big win."
Multidisciplinary cooperation
Students work in the LEER department under the supervision of HU lecturers; well-trained optometrists with hospital experience. If required, there is consultation with the staff doctor or junior doctors. "It is not only the students who benefit from this cooperation," Sigrid explains. "The UMC Utrecht can now outsource some of the protocol care to us, which eases the workload. The hospital also wants to put more emphasis on multidisciplinary cooperation in their specialist training. They can now practice this nicely with our students. This cooperation offers a new perspective on their training as well as ours. Now this really is a win-win situation."
Starting signal
The LEER department has officially opened in the Medical Direction Centre of UMC Utrecht. The department will first, in August, start trial runs with lecturers. Patient care by students is planned for early September, at the start of the new academic year.
Source: Hogeschool Utrecht (Dutch)
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