Assessment of ophthalmology residents' contact lens training

To characterize the nature and duration of contact lens training in ophthalmology residency training programs and to ascertain the comfort level of residents in fitting various types of contact lenses and in dealing with common contact lens-related complications.

Surveys were mailed to 126 ophthalmology residency program directors/coordinators and requested to be distributed to 1,381 ophthalmology residents. The questionnaire addressed issues related to contact lens training, hours of clinical and didactic training, comfort with fitting a variety of different types of contact lenses and dealing with common contact lens-related complications, and plans for incorporation of contact lens dispensing into future practice.

Two hundred and forty-nine residents (18%) responded from 84 programs (67%). Most programs (87%) have some form of supervised contact lens training, frequently conducted by an optometrist (61% of programs), that consists of 20 hours or less of clinical experience and 20 hours or less of didactic training. A majority of the responding graduating residents (66%) feel comfortable fitting spherical soft contact lenses, while less than half of all residents feel comfortable fitting any other type of contact lens. In addition, most residents (65%) feel comfortable diagnosing and treating common contact lens-related complications.

Most ophthalmology residency programs offer some form of supervised contact lens training which allows a majority of residents to feel comfortable fitting only spherical soft contact lenses, while also dealing comfortably with most contact lens-related problems. A comparison with previous data suggests increasing comfort with fitting most types of contact lenses over the last decade.