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Tuscaloosa VAMC

Hammock Relaxing

ICO STUDENTS ACCEPTED EACH QUARTER

Essentials

Location

3701 Loop Road East

City:

State:

Zip:

Tuscaloosa

AL

35404

U.S.A.

Country:

Southeast US

Region:

Additional Address Information:

Description

Located in West Alabama, situated on a beautiful 125 acre campus with 25 major buildings. TVAMC provides primary care, long term health care and mental health services, along with comprehensive outpatient services. The eye clinic is a 1700 square foot clinic with 7 exam rooms, 2 workup rooms, a special procedures room, a visual field room, break room and doctor offices. There is no onsite ophthalmologist but receive consults from all hospital providers.


LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

  1. Improve patient care skills.

  2. Expand knowledge base by delivering care to patients with a wide variety of ocular and systemic diseases.

  3. Expose patients to cases that require the performance of specialty procedures.

Number of Student Encounters

Average number of patients per week per student:

40

40

How many are full exams?

How many are special testing?

30

How many are observation only?

Relative Percentage of Student Encounters

40

0

70

5

0

% = Routine Refractive

% = Contact Lens

% = Ocular Disease

% = Pediatric / Binocular Vision

% = Low Vision

Facility Details

Required equipment:

May bring own BIO if desired

Contact for externship liason: 

Ellen Prewitt, OD
ellen.prewitt@va.gov


205-554-2847 or 3747

Arrival procedure for students:

Student should contact Dr. Prewitt by email at least 2 months prior to the start of the rotation. She will send an externship manual approximately 2 weeks prior to the start of the rotation. They should work with HR regarding fingerprinting. Students are required to complete the information packet and online training sessions at least 1 month prior to rotation. There will be orientation the first morning. 


Attending Staff - Full Time:
Nathan Whitaker, OD, FAAO (Ocular Disease)
Lisa Schifanella, OD, MS (Ocular Disease)

Ellen Prewitt, OD (Ocular Disease)

Miscellaneous comments:

Housing is no longer available starting January 2024. 

Additional Information:

Click here to review onboarding requirements. If you do not see your site listed on Sharepoint, contact your preceptor directly.

Student Review

"This rotation exceeded my expectations. I came into this site expecting to see lots of ocular disease. Not only did I see plenty of this, but it seemed as if I saw something new almost every day. Dr. Whitaker and Dr. Schifanella are extremely helpful and treat you more as a colleague rather than a student. They give you the opportunity to work through each patient case independently, which helps you learn how to be a doctor all while offering friendly advice and guidance along the way. You will see a wide variety of ocular disease here including all types of diabetic retinopathy, all types glaucoma, wet and dry AMD, uveitis, dry eye disease, ischemic optic neuropathy, vein occlusions, artery occlusions, and much much more."

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

Yes

No

1

Yes

Yes

Facility website

Student Clinic Hours

4:00 pm

7:30 am

CLOSED

CLOSED

CLOSED

CLOSED

4:00 pm

7:30 am

4:00 pm

7:30 am

4:00 pm

7:30 am

4:00 pm

7:30 am

M:

T:

W:

T:

F:

S:

S:

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Additional Info about Hours:

VA

Facility Type

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