Interprofessional Learning for Treating Ophthalmic Conditions

Kaelen C. Dunican, PharmD, Professor at MCPHS University—Worcester/Manchester, MA discusses an interprofessional, educational activity with pharmacy and optometry students for reviewing common, self-treatable ophthalmic conditions. The students also examine over-the-counter product samples of nonprescription ophthalmic treatments under the instruction of pharmacy and optometry faculty. This video was filmed at the 2019 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Annual Meetings in Chicago.

Kaelen C. Dunican, PharmD: We actually had pharmacy students and optometry students working together, and we brought several different over-the-counter dry eye products, several ophthalmic lubricants, and actually some other products—ocular decongestants and some antihistamines as well. So we brought all of these products together, had an interactive session with optometry students in their final year, in their fourth year of optometry school, and pharmacy students in their final year in their APPE rotations—their APPE rotations in community pharmacy practice and ambulatory care pharmacy practice. So we brought all these products, we brought the group together, we had optometrists in the room, optometry faculty, and pharmacists that are pharmacy faculty in the room, and we had the students just start, you know, playing with the product, like taking them out of the box, pouring the lubricants on their hand and feeling which ones are thicker, which ones have sot of an oily base to them, and which ones are thinner. And this helps the students understand they're going to use the more oily products if they have evaporative dry eye, where they need to replace that lipid layer. So it was a, you know, the session that we had at our university was very engaging and interactive for the students and I really think that they learned a lot from each other.