4th Year Outreach Clinical Education Program
Adventures of a 4th Year Student: Episode 2 for Daniel Brinchman
This continuing series features a 4th year SCCO student, Daniel Brinchman, who is off to his first rotation in Lawton, Oklahoma at the Lawton IHS Hospital optometry clinic.
Here’s Episode #2:
by Daniel Brinchman, 4th year SCCO student
See what kind of weird stuff shows up when you get bored and start Googling things? I am referring to this photo:
I pondered what I could possibly do with this gem of a picture and realized it was too odd to put on Facebook but just the right amount of odd to make it to the blog about the first state I was rotating through, Oklahoma.
Friend, I have learned some keys to survival if you should ever take a wrong turn on 3 or 4 consecutive highways and wind up in the frying pan of the United States:
- Shorten all of your words that end in “ing” to “in” (as in runnin’, eatin’, or dephosphorylatin’).
- Either say yes, or be prepared to feel ostracized when you order your corn on the cob NOT rolled in butter.
- If you think you see a mudcrab on the side of the road, it’s probably a spider; a pre-historically sized spider. Exert caution.
A photo I snapped: a view of one of the many summer storms that rips across the middle of the country every year…
A good case I encountered in clinic will help you understand precisely what giving eye exams in this state is like. A 42-year-old male patient presents with chief complaint of blurred vision, dry eyes, and headaches. Standard case history procedure revealed differential diagnoses and my plan of action for blur and dryness. Next up, the headaches.
“Sir, please tell me a little more about your headaches.”
“They hurt real bad.”
“Okay, how long have you had these headaches for?”
“Oh prolly the past 14 months.”
“14 months? That’s very exact.”
“Well yeah I’m thinkin’ they started right after I was gored in the side by my Longhorn steer.”
A reenactment of the moments leading up to the goring…
There’s an old cliché saying: you learn somethin’ new every day. Buried deep in the center of this great country, clad in a white coat brandishing nothing but bottles of dilatin’ drops, I learn somethin’ new every patient.
-Daniel Brinchman, SCCO Class of 2014
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Published by Jane Ann Munroe, OD, Assistant Dean of Admissions, SCCO
I wanted to be an optometrist when I was only 10 years old. Why? I had some kind of geeky fascination with eyeglass frames, and was obsessed with getting a pair of my own. In my situation, having perfect eyesight was a distinct disadvantage, so I had to hatch a plan.
After repeated intense squinting while looking at the blackboard, I approached my teacher and lied with conviction, complaining that I couldn’t see. This report got me first to the school nurse and then finally on to an optometrist for an eye exam, where I tried my best Mr. Magoo impression to no avail.
I would have to wait two more long years until the gods finally smiled on me when, by some miracle, I acquired enough astigmatism to warrant my first bona fide pair of prescription eyeglasses!
Along with my love of people and wanting to take care of them, subsequent visits to the optometrist and shadowing, I sealed the deal—optometry was now officially what I wanted to do with my life.
I made first contact with the Southern California College of Optometry when I was in 8th grade. My older sister had a newly minted driver’s license and so I coerced her into driving me all the way from our home in La Mirada to Los Angeles, SCCO’s then-home. After a master planning effort to plot out our route on a paper map folded in 8 places, we arrived at SCCO where my sister quickly surmised that I didn’t have an appointment with an admissions advisor. She called me a loser, drove me all the way back home and the next day, phoned to help make the requisite appointment.
I entered high school in the late 1960’s (ouch, that hurt) when young females wanted to be anything but what I’d chosen as my newly dedicated pursuit—a science geek. I wore thick horn-rimmed black eyeglass frames (told you I was serious) and hung around chemistry lab after class. This was at a time when women just did not pursue careers in science and being the tomboy that I was, that was fine with me. This trend continued right through into undergrad, attending many classes where I was the only female--bespectacled or not--in the class. At a recent high school reunion, many of my classmates still remember me as the science geek with the blinders on—many envious of my joy and passion for my future profession.
I graduated from SCCO in 1977. Looking back with 40 years of experience as an optometrist, I am awed to know that I chose this wonderful profession way-back-when and with only my juvenile perspective to inform me. In 1977 when I graduated from optometry school, the profession began a series of major changes to its practice scope: securing the rights to use diagnostic drugs (dilating drops), securing the rights to prescribe therapeutic drugs (huge change!), being recognized as physicians by the federal government and treating glaucoma. In some US states, optometry has made even bigger strides into minor surgery, use of lasers, hospital privileges...etc. If I had the opportunity to go back and make another choice and knowing what I do today about health care and my own hardwiring, I’d make the same choice for optometry--nobody loves this profession more than I do. http://www.ketchum.edu/index.php/about/administration-directory
I grew up with optometry and now it’s your turn to inherit its future. That’s what this blog is about—getting you into optometry school and I am just the person to help you achieve this goal. We’re going to talk about the admissions process, how to prepare to take the OAT, how to be a competitive applicant, how to prepare to interview, to name a few. We’re going to talk about SCCO, student life and what it’s like to be an optometric intern. I am very persuasive, motivating and I am completely sold on optometry as the best profession in health care. I speak from experience!
Get ready to dialogue. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and please, chime in on discussions. I want to know what kind of help you need. You got this!
View all posts by Jane Ann Munroe, OD, Assistant Dean of Admissions, SCCO
by Daniel Brinchman, 4th year SCCO student 
Eryn Kraning, Director of Admissions, SCCO
Jane Ann Munroe, OD, Assistant Dean of Admissions, SCCO