Optometric Curriculum:
Personal and Professional Development
The capstone of PCO's optometric curriculum is the College’s intensified commitment to each student’s growth and success. This emphasis is expressed in a four-year sequence of core courses, electives, community experiences and targeted workshops. This Curriculum for Personal and Professional Development (CPPD), focuses on the ethical, professional values and business practices necessary in the changing health care system. The interdependency among the profession of optometry, the patients it serves and the society within which it functions is underscored.
The sequence begins the first week of the first year with an intensive all-day workshop that challenges entering students to begin defining their career goals and the concept of personal and professional success. Students explore common interests and unique needs in career planning. Most importantly, this special program sets the tone for individual and shared responsibilities on the journey to becoming a health professional.
The overarching mission of the CPPD is to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve career success. Students are guided through the areas of professional and ethical values, business and practice management, community health and jurisprudence, and career and financial planning. The overarching objective is to produce optometrists who are goal-oriented, understand changing societal trends in health care, and know how to take the necessary practical steps to assure personal and professional success.
The Irving Bennett Business and Practice Management Center
Because business and practice management education is vital to the success of health care professionals, the Pennsylvania College of Optometry is committed to helping students and practitioners meet the demands of a changing health care and business environment. In 1988, the ophthalmic industry joined with the College to create the Irving Bennett Business and Practice Management Center. This international center provides educational programs and support services to optometry students, optometrists, and other individuals in health care.
For students, the Bennett Center is a unique resource center, offering business and practice management electives, mentoring programs, counseling in debt management, professional career choices and a variety of job placement services. Perfect EyeSite is the Center’s placement network and practice resource for eye care providers and prospects. The network collects and organizes information on practice opportunities and matches this with fourth-year students, recently graduated doctors of optometry, or others wishing to join a practice or secure clinical positions within multidisciplinary or academic settings. Perfect EyeSite encompasses a broad range of services for students, as well as practicing optometrists, such as employment/contract review, resume preparation and personalized counseling. The Center has been endorsed by the American Optometric Association to perform practice appraisals and analyses, which assists our students and alumni to achieve their goals in private practice.