A year in the life: Southern California College of Optometry student experience in the Indian Health Service.

The Indian Health Service (IHS) offers an excellent opportunity for health professions students to enhance their professional growth and knowledge. The Southern California College of Optometry began its relationship with the IHS in 1974. Today, SCCO has a Memorandum of Understanding for clinical education of its students with nine of the 12 IHS area offices across the country. In 1994-95, 37.6% of SCCO's graduating class received a portion of their senior year clinical training in externships with the IHS. A total of 15,834 patients encounters were logged by the students while they were at the IHS sites. Fifty different types of procedures were reported by the students. This opportunity provided the students with extensive clinical experience. The types of patients seen and the complexity of the patient mix, varied across the different student externships. The IHS is truly a great resource for the education of our future doctors of optometry.