Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Health Professions
 
Board
Board of Optometry
 
chapter
Regulations of the Virginia Board of Optometry [18 VAC 105 ‑ 20]
Action Regulations for laser surgery certifications
Stage Proposed
Comment Period Ended on 10/25/2024
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10/25/24  11:25 pm
Commenter: Karisa

Major negative repercussions
 

Hi Ms. Moss,

I'm sure you're feeling inundated with so many letters!  Sorry- here's one more.  I understand the desire to give optometrists a larger scope of practice.  But if they only need to take a quick course and then they can operate, there will be a LOT of (eye) casualties along the way.  It's way too dangerous and the risks are too high to allow this shortcut.

My very bright, coordinated son (1470 on the PSATs, woot woot!) just received his driver's license.  Every morning the two of us pray for his safety, and then I watch him reverse out of the driveway and pull onto our street.  Despite being in my embarrassing pajamas and barefoot on the cold pavement, I keep watching him drive away until the car is completely out of sight.  Even though my son is so smart and capable, it's the basics he continually forgets-- flipping on the headlights when it's dark, removing the parking brake, remembering how to de-fog the windshields, etc.  I often need to chase after his car as he's pulling out to urgently remind him of these details.  ("TURN ON THE HEADLIGHTS!"  "SWITCH OFF THE PARKING BRAKE!").  For those of us who have been driving for decades, we have these automatic actions down.  But there's no shortcut to experience, and with time he'll get better.  For now though, it is extremely unnerving and we are grateful every day he comes home unscathed.

If we really must let optometrists operate on eyes, then they need lots of in-person, proctored experience.  Not just book learning or a breezy online course.  If not, we are certainly facing lots of dangerous crashes in the surgical rooms.

Thank you for considering,

Karisa

 

 

 

 

CommentID: 228708