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The need for and development of a practice management module for optometry students in South Africa

M.Comm. / Literature relating to Optometric Practice Management in South Africa is not available. The only text available for use by Optometry students is the book published by Gowans in 1989. This text is now outdated as many changes were instituted after the first democratic elections in 1994. Not only has Optometric Practice Management been neglected, but literature relating to Optometric education in South Africa is also not easily accessible. Very few publications dedicated to Optometric education itself have been retrieved. The earliest study was commissioned by the South African Optometric Association when Hofstetter (1980) was requested to investigate Optometric education in South Africa. The need for teaching Optometric Practice Management as part of formal undergraduate studies was investigated. Mokoena (2007) referred to the importance thereof in a letter to the editor of the Vision magazine. He referred to the requirement of Practice Management as ‘to teach and integrate a sound, practice business education into the undergraduate level of optometry at optometry schools’. Some other authors such as Schubach (2002) have indicated the need to teach basic business skills and Kriel (2003) also highlighted the requirement to teach Practice Management as a specialized skill at a postgraduate level. The utilization or performance of various Practice Management aspects was evaluated and the importance of these activities in practice was assessed. The rating of the importance of the activities has led to the suggestion of a curriculum for Optometric Practice Management for the undergraduate programme as well as a possible postgraduate course.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:6920
Date04 October 2010
CreatorsRichter, Marietjie
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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