Externship Site
St. Joseph County VA Clinic
ICO STUDENTS ACCEPTED EACH QUARTER
Essentials
Location
1540 Trinity Pl.
City:
State:
Zip:
Mishawaka
IN
46545
U.S.A.
Country:
Midwest U.S.
Region:
Additional Address Information:
Description
The new, state-of-the-art clinic offers primary medical care, expanded mental health care, social work/homeless services, tele-health, laboratory, radiology, audiology, pharmacy, optometry, GI services, podiatry, endoscopy, urology, home-based primary care, dietetics, physical therapy and rehab, compensation and pension examinations, and dispensing of prosthetics. The students will be working off of the attending doctor's schedule, which typically has 13-14 Veterans scheduled per day. The students are encouraged to be independent, including performing of ancillary testing/imaging, etc.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
1. Growth of independence
2) Development of knowledge base and application of it in a clinical setting
3) Encouragement of life-long learning through didactic time, including grand rounds presentation with partnering Veterans Affairs facilities
Number of Student Encounters
Average number of patients per week per student:
30
30
How many are full exams?
How many are special testing?
30
How many are observation only?
0
Relative Percentage of Student Encounters
10
0
90
0
0
% = Routine Refractive
% = Contact Lens
% = Ocular Disease
% = Pediatric / Binocular Vision
% = Low Vision
Facility Details
Required equipment:
BIO, clinic attire is scrubs.
Contact for externship liason:
Mary Wittendorf
mary.wittendorf@va.gov
574-272-9000 x 49385
Arrival procedure for students:
Please arrive at 7:45 AM on the expected first day in clinic. Additionally, email will be sent before arrival with further information. The eye clinic is in the east wing of the building. Please let the medical support assistance at the front desk of the eye clinic know you are here, and we will get started on orientation.
Attending Staff - Full Time:
Christopher Bugajski, OD, FAAO, ABCMO (Primary Care, Ocular Disease)
Robert Binkley, OD, FAAO, ABCMO (Primary Care, Ocular Disease)
Mary (Stoll) Wittendorf, OD (Primary Care, Ocular Disease)
Attending Staff - Part Time:
Scott Caughell, OD
Miscellaneous comments:
Additional Information:
Click here to review onboarding requirements. If you do not see your site listed on Sharepoint, contact your preceptor directly.
Student Review
Amazing site, I really enjoyed my time here. The attendings genuinely like to teach. They don't get frustrated when you are wrong or make mistakes, rather they help guide you in the right direction. The patient population is different than the IEI, so you'll get exposed to a different variety of conditions here. Overall great site to learn and grow.
Ocular Disease
Facility specialties:
Facility category:
Ocular Disease (Specialty 2)
Max number of ICO students?
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Housing available or a stipend?
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Is this a residency program?
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Other externship affiliations?
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Do you provide formal journal club, case discussion, grand rounds?
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Are meals provided?
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Is an automobile necessary?
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Is there on-site parking?
No
Yes
Yes, CCO
No
No
2
Yes
Yes
Facility website
Student Clinic Hours
4:15 pm
7:45 am
CLOSED
CLOSED
CLOSED
CLOSED
4:15 pm
7:45 am
4:15 pm
7:45 am
4:15 pm
7:45 am
4:15 pm
7:45 am
M:
T:
W:
T:
F:
S:
S:
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Additional Info about Hours:
Closed all federal holidays
VA
Facility Type