OAR 852-070-0054: Outside Agency Approved Continuing Optometric Education Courses

(1) The Oregon Board of Optometry accepts courses related to the maintenance or advancement of professional skills and clinical abilities approved by COPE (Council on Optometric Practitioner Education) and the AOA (American Optometric Association). If such a course has been AOA or COPE approved, the Board will accept the course as meeting its continuing education requirements for license renewal except for courses in Category D as indicated in (4) below. AOA uses the COPE categories for their courses as well. (2) COPE course category A: Clinical Optometry which includes Contact Lenses (CL), Functional Vision/Pediatrics (FV), General Optometry (GO), Low Vision (LV), and Public Health (PB). The Board will not grant credit for CPR or First Aid courses. (3) COPE course categories B: Ocular Disease and C: Related Systemic Disease are approved as meeting the Board’s nine hours per license year requirement of continuing optometric education in the area of diagnosis, treatment and management of ocular disease: (a) Ocular Disease includes Glaucoma (GL), Injection Skills (IS), Laser Procedures (LP), Peri-Operative Management of Ophthalmic Surgery (PO), Surgery Procedures (SP), and Treatment and Management of Ocular Disease (TD); and (b) Related Systemic Disease includes Neuro-Optometry (NO), Pharmacology (PH), and Systemic/Ocular Disease (SD). (4) COPE course category D Optometric Business Management, which includes Practice Management (PM) and Ethics/Jurisprudence (EJ), is not approved by the Oregon Board of Optometry, unless it is an optometric ethics course that has been individually evaluated and approved by the Board. (5) It is the responsibility of the licensee to ensure that any continuing optometric education coursework submitted for credit meets the criteria of this rule. (6) The Oregon Board of Optometry will review the COPE criteria for course category definitions to determine if the process and categories are within the standards it has set. Those COPE category definitions not acceptable to the Board will be identified to COPE and listed in the Board’s administrative rules.