| Descriptors |
- Understand and apply knowledge of medicine and surgery relevant to cataract and refractive practice, to make diagnoses and recommend a management plan.
- Be informed by the patient’s unique medical, psychological and social circumstances.
- Understand the tests and imaging techniques that might be helpful in deciding about and guiding treatment.
- Use with accuracy and efficiency instruments available to assess the patient, including biometry (both contact and non-contact) and keratometry.
- Implement a detailed management plan to include care from triage to discharge from care.
- Acknowledge and follow relevant guidelines or protocols, including application of appropriate formulae for lens calculation.
- Practise in line with the latest evidence.
- Understand the indications, risks and limitations of surgery and laser treatment and identify patients for whom these treatments would be appropriate.
- Involve the patient, and where appropriate, their carer, partner or relatives, in the choices about their care and enable them to express their informed consent, including about refractive outcome.
- Share decision-making by providing patients with appropriate and comprehensible information, prioritising the patient’s wishes and respecting the patient’s beliefs, concerns and expectations.
- Communicate the uncertainty of options in a manner that patients will understand.
- Manage difficult or challenging conversations.
- Develop situational awareness and an understanding of the impact of cultural and social issues.
- Enable patient self-management where possible.
- Understand and apply knowledge of clinical genetics relevant to cataract and refractive conditions.
- Advise patients about patterns of inheritance and recognise when it is appropriate to refer a patient for genetic counselling.
- Recognise when it is important to offer a consultation with family members.
- Recognise when a patient has had or is developing a complication or side effect from treatment and be able to manage this in an appropriate and timely manner.
- Maintain an understanding of new developments in relevant technologies.
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