Ophthalmic nursing future and challenges

1. By
Rehmat Ullah
Nursing Director MTI KTH, Peshawar

2. • Today is a new era in nursing care.
• Nurses are now active both in;
– Hospital-based healthcare &
– Community health initiatives
• The focus is on specialization in a subspecialties
• A nurse play a crucial part in the subspecialty
area of diagnosis & management

3. • The main objective of specialized nursing
educational processes is to;
– Train nurses to be quick, logical thinkers, even
under pressure and during emergency situations

4. • Is considered a specialty in nursing globally &
– emphasis is to train and develop competent &
independent nurse practitioners
• A specialized ophthalmic nurse should be able
to;
– make clinical decisions based on modern medicine
and technology considering patient welfare

5. • A nursing professional that focuses on;
– assessing and treating patients with a variety of
eye diseases and injuries
• They also have a huge part to play in;
– Preventive ophthalmology saves money & time
– Screening & Early Diagnose better visual
outcomes & might prevent vision impairment
– Achieving Universal Eye Health.

6. • According to statistics, world-wide around;
• 285 million people suffer from vision impairment,
– 39 million of this population are completely blind &
– the remaining have some degree of vision impairment
from moderate to severe.
– > 80% of all these cases could have been prevented or
treated if action had been taken at the onset of these
conditions

7. • The domains of ophthalmic nursing are:
– Eye health
– Visual impairment
– Learning disabilities
– Paediatric care
– Ageing population
– Primary care

8. • Each domain has been further sub-divided
into five fundamental key areas:
1) Social and economic
2) Professional and legal
3) Psychological
4) Educational
5) Environmental & physical

9. • Ophthalmic Surgical Assistance:
– Carrying out pre & post management of eye surgeries.
• Nursing Care:
– Apply medical & nursing interventions to fulfill visual care
requirements
– Assess a patient’s visual potential and his or her capability to
function independently
– Help patients overcome psychological obstacles
– Provide necessary assistance to increase patient independence
– Helps patients adapt to new and persistent lifestyle-altering
conditions
• Pretreatment Assessment. consideration of the patient's
physical, social, emotional and occupational needs.

10. • Eye Health Education: Educating the public and other
health workers on;
– Primary eye care, including health promotion and
prevention of avoidable ophthalmic diseases.
– Awareness of public resources & available services for the
visually impaired
• Counseling:
– able to counsel and refer patients who are irreversibly
blind for rehabilitation.
• Outreach: Organize and run school health and
community outreach programmes.
• Manage ocular emergencies

11. • Clinical Competency  diagnostic, prognostic
or therapeutic decisions
• Lack of research-awareness  there is an
increasing body of ophthalmic nursing
research
• Shall be involved in clinical research
• Quality of nursing Education need to
enhance training to degree level
• Community and policy maker’s trust

12. • Visibility of this career path would attract
more candidates & result in a higher level of
patient trust
• Role strengthening To expand roles in
response to the changing demands of the
service
• Outreach  To play role in health education &
health promotion
• Research and Innovation

13. • The future is depends on the cultural, social,
and financial background
• Nurses Commit is required to dedicating
themselves to;
– Continued learning,
– Develop and maintain the highest standard of care
– Involved in multidisciplinary group care

14. • Hadavand MB, Heidary F, Heidary R, Gharebaghi R. Role of ophthalmic
nurses in prevention of ophthalmic diseases. Med Hypothesis Discov Innov
Ophthalmol. 2013 Winter;2(4):92-5. Review. PMID: 24822227
• Vladan B. Nurse researchers; an insight in science production in
ophthalmology. Med Hypothesis Discov Innov Ophthalmol. 2013
Fall;2(3):56-8. PMID: 24600644.
• Wiafe B. Who can carry out primary eye care? Community Eye Health.
1998; 11(26):22-4. PMID: 17492027.
• The nature, scope and value of ophthalmic nursing. (2020, January 15).
Retrieved from:
https://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/258490/0
03521.pdf. [Database on the Internet]
• Heidary F, Gharebaghi. RSignificance of Novel Ideas to Solve Challenges
Facing Today's Ophthalmology.
• Med Hypothesis Discov Innov Ophthalmol. 2012 Summer; 1(2):19-20.