Children's Visual Health From Primary Care. A Case Study in Teaching Optometry

Abstract

Childhood ophthalmological problems are a frequent reason for consultation in Primary Care and frequently go unnoticed in front of the professor, the optometrist and the nurse. Efforts to achieve its early detection will significantly improve the ability and visual development and even in many cases the school and social performance of children. The objective of this study is to present a case study in the Optometry career where health teams are integrated for the preservation of visual health in childhood from Primary Care and that at the same time reflects the importance of field work for the teaching of optometry. The methodological design had three facets: the first bibliographic, where a review of the literature was carried out in the databases, articles in both English and Spanish referring to the visual health of the child population were selected and the terms in reference were defined to ophthalmological problems; the second corresponds to the case study carried out in an educational institution located in Guayaquil and, finally, the third phase corresponds to a focus group where the students expressed their opinions regarding the teaching-learning process through the case studies. This research concludes that children's visual health is of significant importance that must be attended at the first level of care by the professionals who work in it, considering the incidence of pathologies in this age group; and that when students apply knowledge, the teaching-learning process is more effective.