Thoughts on GES Boot Camp Session 1

We had our first GES Boot Camp session last night. I think it went really well. We had a incredible group of enthusiastic first and second year medical students as well as some of the students from our local Unite for Sight Chapters.

We spent an hour covering

• the design and philosophy of the Guerrilla Eye Service
• some very basic eye anatomy
• the structure of an eye exam
• a very brief introduction to the seven major causes of blindness

I was impressed that a substantial number of the students had prepared by reading the material on the site.
Before the session I was concerned that very few of the students would have the background needed to understand the material. I was pleasantly surprised. The students asked great questions and I had a sense that I didn't lose to many people in what can sometimes be overwhelming jargon.

The hands on session was fun. I don't think anybody realized we had spent two whole hours together when 8:00 rolled around. Thanks to Allison, Vera, Joy, Kim and Emily for working with the students during the hands on training. Thanks to everyone who helped me back the GES equipment back into the van.
Lori took pictures and we'll post those soon.

Don't forget that Jennifer Staple Clark from Unite for Sight will be speaking at our next session.
After that we going to hands on training with equipment related to refractive disorders.
I'm thinking of having us move to the eye clinic for that part of that session.

I've posted the extra handouts and attached them to the event.

We have two missions scheduled between now and the next session. I'm going to try to get a sign-up function working this weekend.

Please let me know if you know of anyone else who needs to be added to our group.

I'd love to hear what others thought and I'd love to hear any suggestions for making the rest of the course even better.

Jake