Location: Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Program Stipend: $44,154 per year. Eligible for health benefits, and professional liability insurance included.

Two positions available

The Residency in Vision Rehabilitation with emphases in Low Vision Rehabilitation and Ocular Disease at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center provides optometrists with additional clinical experience in geriatric and rehabilitative optometry that goes beyond the general optometric four-year curriculum. The clinical training in the residency program will result in the resident’s attainment of advanced competencies in eye, vision, health and rehabilitation care. The residency’s comprehensive experience includes participation in the Birmingham VAMC Optometry Resident Clinic, Southeastern Blind Rehabilitation Center, Outpatient Low Vision Rehabilitation Clinic and the UAB School of Optometry’s Residency Program. The program’s advanced didactic training and strong clinical foundation allow residents who complete the program to pursue professional opportunities that require a high level of clinical expertise, such as specialized optometric practice or academia.

Residents spend six months of the program providing direct patient care to a geriatric population (ocular disease and primary care) and six months providing low vision rehabilitation services to inpatients and outpatients in the Blind Rehabilitation Center. The program primarily involves direct patient care by the resident, but supervision of student externs is also incorporated.

Residents in the program attend a weekly Residency Conference, which includes presentations by faculty and guests, grand rounds, case conferences, journal club, records review and other learning activities. In order to better develop the residents’ scholarship, a paper suitable for publication is required.

Visit the Birmingham VAMC website to learn more.