The pandemic has created many obstacles over the past year for almost every organization, and PBNC has not been immune either. But, where there are obstacles, there are also opportunities. During the summer of 2020, PBNC began the process of building an online version of our School-Aged Vision Screener Training and Certification course. While school has largely been virtual, the ability to make sure that the nurses and school staff charged with vision screenings are current with the skills and training to perform these screenings is critical as children return to the classrooms.
The platform was built from the ground up, and specific to Prevent Blindness North Carolina. It is video based and interactive, providing the trainee the ability to navigate through the course at their own pace. The platform provides fidelity and comprehension checks throughout the course, and at the conclusion, the trainee can even take their final exam and receive their certificate of completion online. We currently still oversee the hands-on skills assessment via a live zoom call with the participants, but the remainder of the course is fully asynchronous.
Not only does this new platform allow for better access by the nurses and school staff that rely on our certification and training every year, but it also allows us to deliver trainings into new audiences that we would not have been able to before. Specifically, family and pediatric primary care offices are a new opportunity we are actively pursuing to bring the age-appropriate, evidence-based training for vision screenings as far and wide as we can reach.
If your organization is interested in conducting a certification class via this new platform, please contact Caroline Carbone.
