THE SKEFFINGTON PERSPECTIVE OF THE BEHAVIORAL MODEL OF OPTOMETRIC DATA ANALYSIS AND VISION CARE
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The text is meant to be both instructive and provocative. For example, the Foreword begins by stating that "The practice of clinical health care often is not an exact science." Examples to illustrate this fact, particularly regarding optometric services, are numerous throughout the book. That vision care largely is predicated on hypothetical constructs may be a disturbing thought to some, yet it nonetheless is a fact, which the book demonstrates. A health-care regimen must be able to identify and state its guiding principles. These precepts usually are codified in some model of professional behavior which the practitioner then follows when providing services. What the tenets are regarding the Behavioral Model of Optometric Care and how they are constructed and clinically implemented, represents the substance of this text.
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About the Book
No systematic analysis of optometric clinical data can be undertaken unless the findings are referred to a logical model that allows comparisons to be made of interaction characteristics that exist between the accommodative and convergence mechanisms inherent to the human vision system. Concomitantly, many of the concepts applied during any such analytical process are based on hypothetical constructs. This text re-examines the elements originally proposed by Dr. A.M. Skeffington, and offers a revised insight into how performance changes may occur as individual visual behavior adapts to the impact of environmental demands. In-depth research and extensive references attempt to substantiate the Skeffington paradigm of professional vision analysis. Long-standing challenges to the optometric profession are identified. As presented, the contents are appropriate for use as a classroom text, for reference, and for identifying areas for clinical research.
About the Author
The Author's academic credentials include AB and MA degrees from Stanford University; OD and MS degrees from the Pacific University College of Optometry; and an earned Ed.D. from Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis). An honorary DOS was received from Southern College of Optometry in 1986. After graduation from Pacific, five years of private practice was followed by fifteen years as an instructor and administrator at Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee, and another fifteen years at the Northeastern State Universtiy College of Optometry in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Teaching responsibilities emphasized patient examination, data collection and analysis, and primary care. Over the years administrative duties included terms as Clinic Director at both Southern College and Northeastern State University, and four years as Dean of Students at the Memphis institution. During the decade between 1981 and 1991 the Author was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Board of Examiners in Optometry. Since formal retirement in 1996 the Author has continued as Professor Emeritus, attending vision therapy and primary care clinics, and serving as Chief of Electrodiagnostic Services at Northeastern.