Shye Shye

The UK Stroke Forum (UKSF) was held between the 3rd and 5th December 2019 in Telford and saw over 1200 delegate come through the door. BIOS was represented by the Stroke and Neuro-Rehab CAG academic lead and members of the steering committee. They ran a charity stand throughout the conference which was well stocked with leaflets and information promoting orthoptics and the benefits of having orthoptists working within the stroke team. Several orthoptists made themselves known to be in attendance by visiting the BIOS stand. There was a lot of footfall to the stand with a lot of interest in [...]

BIOS have had a very kind donation from the family of an Orthoptist who sadly passed away this year and remembered BIOS in her will. We would like to use the money to support new graduate BIOS members to attend the 14th Congress of the International Orthoptic Association (IOA), which will be held in Liverpool in June 2020. This is an opportunity to learn about recent advances in the field of orthoptics and ophthalmology and to meet colleagues from all over the world. The conference is only held every four years, and it is unlikely that it will be held [...]

I have been attending a series of meetings led by Health Education England (HEE) to support professional bodies and with a profession as small as ours they know the reach and impact is greater than just orthoptists in England. The first two workshops were concerned with the recruitment of students to the courses and the requirements to apply and successfully enter our undergraduate programmes and I would like to thank Helen Davis, BIOS Chair of the Education and Professional Development committee (EPDC), for attending the second workshop. The last two workshops have concentrated on Clinical placements capacity for our undergraduate [...]

On Friday 1st November 2019 at High Wycombe Hospital Lecture Theatre we held the Orthoptic Visual Processing Difficulties Clinical Interest day. The day was excellently attended by both Orthoptists and Optometrists with brilliant feedback from the speakers as well as the attendees. We had an enthusiastic room full of professionals keen to share their knowledge and experiences to assist us to not only investigate our patients but to the best and most accurate of our ability. The first speaker was Professor John Stein. Professor Stein is Emeritus Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford. Although retired, he still teaches [...]

As part of a BIOS research project, we want to assess the experience new graduates have in their first year of working, and look at what support tools are put in place to help them develop into an autonomous practitioner. The best way to do this is by asking our new graduates! We are recruiting participants to come and talk to us about their experience with any support tool they were assigned when they started working after graduating. We will be conducting informal focus group interviews for new graduates and mentors to discuss, in groups, your experiences of the support [...]