Iowa a program that will expose you to:
- High-powered faculty members dedicated to your success
- Comprehensive exposure to all subspecialties
- State-of-the-art clinical facilities
The accomplishments of our residency graduates demonstrate our commitment to help you develop necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in your career endeavors.
The ophthalmology resident training program gives residents a broad comprehensive ophthalmology background and opportunities to gain experience in the various ophthalmic subspecialties as well.
In training residents, the Department strives to produce excellent practitioners. We also want our residents to learn to be good teachers, acquire a critical and inquiring approach to investigating the unsolved problems of ophthalmology, and contribute to our community and specialty.
Residents rotate through every clinical service working closely with faculty and fellows, and participating fully in surgery under the expert guidance of faculty. Residents are required to participate in clinical or basic research during their training.
The ophthalmology resident training program is three years with another year of an integrated internship comprised of ophthalmology and medicine rotations. Six residents are appointed annually.
Ophthalmology Residency Surgery Statistics
Ophthalmology Residency Surgery Statistics
2024 ACGME Reports | RRC Minimums | 2024 National Average | 2024 Iowa Average |
|---|---|---|---|
Cataract | 86 | 220 | 311.6 |
YAG Capsulotomy | 5 | 27 | 81.2 |
Laser trabeculoplasty | 5 | 19 | 8.2 |
Laser iridotomy | 4 | 11 | 7.6 |
Panretinal laser photocoagulation | 10 | 37 | 36.6 |
Keratoplasty | 5 | 10 | 19.2 |
Pterygium/conjunctival and other cornea | 3 | 12 | 23.4 |
Keratorefractive Surgery | 6 | 15 | 14 |
Strabismus | 10 | 24 | 42.8 |
Glaucoma - Filtering/shunting procedures | 5 | 2 | 4.2 |
Glaucoma MIGS | 5 | 12.2 | 10 |
Retinal Vitreous | 10 | 26 | 20.2 |
Intravitreal injection | 10 | 162 | 157.2 |
Oculoplastic and orbit | 28 | 76 | 168.9 |
Eyelid laceration | 3 | 12 | 41.8 |
Chalazia Excision | 3 | 8 | 6 |
Ptosis/blepharoplasty | 3 | 23 | 74 |
Globe Trauma | 4 | 11 | 10.2 |
Committed to Education
Our program is poised to meet the needs of the changing face of today’s health care. We aim to assure that residents receive a broad comprehensive background in ophthalmology and develop research skills to make them better clinicians. We want to assure our graduates are completely ready for whatever they may encounter in a comprehensive practice or in further training in a subspecialty. We are committed to providing all our trainees with an appropriate and varied surgical experience to achieve competence as ophthalmic surgeons. With this commitment, we feel we have a moral obligation to our patients and the public to foster the highest moral and ethical behavior.
Approximately half of our graduates enter practice immediately upon completion of the 3-year residency. Others pursue fellowship training before going into practice or entering an academic career. Regardless of a resident or fellow's choice of career path, he or she should feel fully confident of having received the best possible training in ophthalmology. As part of the Iowa Ophthalmology Family, they have worked with dedicated and experienced faculty in a contemporary and world-renowned program. We believe at the completion of training, graduates of the University of Iowa Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences are prepared for the challenges ahead and can look forward to the fulfillment that comes from pursuing a career that fosters life-long education.
Training Program Work Hours
Work hours are defined as all clinical and academic activities related to the program, i.e., patient care (both inpatient and outpatient), administrative duties related to patient care, the provision for transfer of patient care, time spent in-house during call activities, and scheduled academic activities such as conferences. Work hours do not include reading and preparation time spent away from the duty site.
Duty hours must be limited to 80 hours per week, averaged over a four-week period, inclusive of all in-house call activities.
Residents must be provided with one day in 7 free from all educational and clinical responsibilities, averaged over a 4-week period, inclusive of call. One day is defined as one continuous 24-hour period free from all clinical, educational, and administrative activities.
Adequate time for rest and personal activities must be provided. This should consist of a 10-hour time period provided between all daily duty periods.
At-home call (pager call) is defined as call taken from outside the assigned institution.
- The frequency of at-home call is not subject to the every-third-night limitation. However, at-home call must not be so frequent as to preclude rest and reasonable personal time for each resident. Residents taking at-home call must be provided with one day in 7 completely free from all educational and clinical responsibilities, averaged over a 4-week period.
- When residents are called into the hospital from home, the hours residents spend in-house are counted toward the 80-hour limit.
The program director and the faculty must monitor the demands of at-home call in their programs and make scheduling adjustments as necessary to mitigate excessive service demands and/or fatigue. Residents should report time spent at hospital after 2:00 AM to the Program Director or Program Coordinator the next morning and will most likely be released at noon to avoid fatigue related errors.
Weekend Call Duties
The first call resident works with the PGY4 resident on weeknight and weekend call. If surgery is planned, it will be explained to the patient by the surgical team who will come in to the hospital to examine the patient and answer the patient's questions. Any questions about weekend patients should be directed to the senior resident on call or the appropriate service.
The second call physician (a PGY4 resident) will be available to the first call resident for consultation. In addition, he or she will decide, after clearing it with the faculty on call, when and if emergency operations should be done. No surgery is to be performed without approval of the on-call faculty. Intraocular trauma or orbit cases may only be performed in the presence of a faculty member. The PGY4 resident on-call must be available by telephone at all times. The PGY4 resident on call is required to come in to see any patient on whom the "First Call" resident requests consultation.
Finally, there are four "Faculty Call" lists:
- The faculty member on general call will be consulted by the third-year resident and will be contacted before any patient is admitted to the hospital or before an operation is planned.
- The retina call list is made up of faculty members and fellows of the Vitreoretinal Service, who will assist in handling posterior segment trauma and retinal detachments.
- The Oculoplastic Service covers the plastics call and assists in any problems involving trauma to the lids, adnexae, and orbit.
- The Neuro-ophthalmology on call faculty. Faculty and fellow cover subspecialty care for neuro-ophthalmologic problems.
Call Schedule
At UI Health Care
- First year residents: First call every 6th weekend day (Friday-Sunday).
- Second year residents: First call every 5th weekend/weekday for first 3 then about every 10th weekday night. Dedicated night float rotation covering Monday-Thursday overnight; with no other clinical duties during that rotation, no weekends, and no call outside of night float.
- Third year residents: Call backup about every 5th weekday and every 5th weekend
At the VA
- Des Moines VA: The Third Year Resident on the Des Moines rotation takes call during the week from Monday to Thursday evening from home. (Rarely called in)
- Iowa City VA: Call covered by UIHC first call resident and Iowa City VA PGY4 (rarely called in).