Training ophthalmology residents to treat patients with vision loss. Results of a demonstration program.

Ophthalmology residents attended a day-long training program designed to teach them about the rehabilitation needs of visually impaired and blind patients. A pretest measuring the participants' knowledge of rehabilitation services and their rehabilitation-oriented activities was administered before the training program and a posttest measuring the same items was administered 6 months after the program. Several of the rehabilitation-oriented measures that participants themselves take with visually impaired and blind patients increased substantially during the 6-month period as did their knowledge of rehabilitation services available in the community. The referrals made for these rehabilitation services and the participants' interactions with allied health professionals who serve visually impaired and blind patients increased only slightly. These findings suggest the need to institutionalize training for residents in the topic of rehabilitation and to allocate time within their schedules for making referrals and working cooperatively with allied health professionals.