BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN OPTOMETRY DEGREE PROGRAM

The All American Institute of Medical Sciences School of Natural & Applied Sciences is engaged in offering the Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Optometry program, to deliver excellent teaching and learning, and professional prospects to its graduates.

Optometry is a healthcare profession concerned with examination, diagnosis, and treatment of the human visual system. It is a dynamic and respected profession and opens a range of options to graduates. The role of the optometrist as part of the professional eye care team is changing and expanding, and the opportunities for a fulfilling career have never been better.

Our goal is to advance ‘Vision for All’ (World Health Assembly) by training optometrists to the Bachelor of Science (BSc.), helping Jamaica and the Caribbean achieve a ratio of one optometrist to every five to six thousand persons. In Jamaica, this requires close to 600 new optometrists.

To achieve this goal, we collaborated with the Caribbean Council for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CCB-Eye Care Caribbean), Queen Elizabeth Highway, St. John's, Antigua-Barbuda, to offer this four years BSc in Optometry degree program.

Students who have prerequisites typically attend AAIMS BSc Optometry program for four years. The first two years are spent primarily studying the basic sciences and ocular disease processes through lecture-based courses and lab work. The second two years are devoted to specialized lectures, honing of research competencies, training in advance diagnostic procedures, refractive techniques, and internship practice.

Mission: To help advance the UN and World Health Assembly’s Vision for All, while delivering excellent eye health education through training and deploying Optometrists who will serve the community, support the work of other healthcare providers, function as part of an eye health team and become life-long learners committed to excellence, leadership, and service.

Guiding Principles: The program was designed to be stimulating, flexible, and relevant to a career in optometry. We aim to ensure students become proficient in many aspects of optometric care including general eye examinations, spectacle and contact lens prescribing, spectacle dispensing, assessment of color vision and binocular vision disorders, and treating patients with low vision.

The Goals of the Optometry curriculum are to provide all graduates with:

• A broad knowledge of the ocular and vision sciences appropriate for all optometrists.
• A functional understanding of public health and epidemiological themes, pertinent to prevention of avoidable blindness, preservation of sight and delivery of eye health services to special populations
• Competence in clinical skills to include eliciting a medical history, performing refraction and an ocular health examination, performing and interpreting vision-related technical and diagnostic procedures, and practicing preventive eye health.
• The ability to apply knowledge and skills effectively in the daily practice of optometry, as evidenced by the ability to formulate an accurate problem list, an appropriate set of competing hypotheses to explain the problems, and diagnostic and therapeutic plans.
• Training in the scientific method and the opportunity and support to participate in research, which advances knowledge creation and knowledge recovery.
• The ability to be an effective life-long learner and to conduct critical analyses of new knowledge.
• Knowledge and skills in the use of information technology to manage information optimally in order to meet the clinical, research, and educational demands of the future.
• The highest ethical standards.
• The ability to communicate effectively and humanely with patients, colleagues, and others.
• An understanding of the role and responsibilities of the optometrist in the healthcare delivery system and society.

Curriculum

Program length: 4 Years; 16 Quarter terms (4 terms per year)