Testimonials

'I took part in the Fdn Deg in OCT. This course really did help solidify my existing knowledge and help expand it on some specialities. It is also fantastic to finally have the formal educational to help support any future role development which has been lacking in the ophthalmic technician/ photographer roles'

Student - Kent & Canterbury Hospital

 

‘As an ophthalmic technician, working in the imaging area has been always very exciting. This Cert HE in OCT Capture has given me new tools to boost my professional career and to have better understanding of the methods to obtain better images which is helping the Consultants in the clinics. They can make more accurate diagnosis and having faithful information makes it easier for them, to know if the patient management is working properly during follow-up appointments...thanks to this Certificate I have obtained promotion and I want to carry on improving my professional knowledge in the essential imagining area’

Student - Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital

‘The OCT capture course has been the perfect qualification to help consolidate my knowledge of OCT capture as well as providing the perfect foundation to build my knowledge of image interpretation. So many other Healthcare scientists have been looking for a course to help standardise some of the themes affiliated with OCT capture and this is the perfect short course to help provide a good introduction’

Student - Gloucestershire Hospitals NHSFT

‘As an experienced ophthalmic technician, I was excited to discover a nationally recognised qualification totally relevant to my role. The structure of the course, combining ophthalmic anatomy and physiology along with practical tasks, has enabled me to fully understand the theory and practice of OCT. This has enhanced my skills by giving me confidence in my ability to acquire the most appropriate scans, of the best possible quality, for every patient’

Student - James Paget University Hospital

'A mixed feeling of excitement and trepidation took over me when I signed-up for the course. I have a very active young child, a cheerful dog, and a loving wife who works nights so I was really worried about adding this course work into the mix. 

This course is very well-structured and I can definitely see the hard work and time spent to create such a truly effective format. Doing it online makes it really easy to access anywhere, to open up links for references, and to search for anything. It's presented in a way that makes it easy enough to understand and the self-assessments and mock tests will truly help you to assess your own learning and prepare well for the exams. Having said that, it is very challenging and will really test you, but if you put your heart into it, you will really enjoy it. And with good time-management, you still get to enjoy the good things in life while learning. 

The amount of stuff I have learned in a year is unbelievable and when I look back now, it's hard to believe I did that. Our clinical lead was impressed when she saw what I have been learning during the course. The confidence this course has given me in my current work is incredible. It's just made my work so much easier and a lot of people now depend on me. The trust is even creating a new role for me after completing this course. Amazing.

The downside? Nothing really except you never get to meet the lovely and very supportive people behind this course in person because it's all done online. I highly recommend this to anyone who want to further their knowledge and skills in this field.'

Student - West Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust

‘The diploma has been undertaken by a number of staff who are keen to enhance their knowledge of disease processes as viewed by OCT. This has proved invaluable. Our service has many facets and there are areas where I would like staff to have specialist knowledge based on their particular role, the glaucoma service for example or the corneal clinics. The facility of being able to specialise in part of this course has allowed me to have expert imagers where needed as well as the staff developing a good all round knowledge of many diseases’

Employer - Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

‘This course has allowed me as a non-registered professional to tap into a wealth of knowledge provided by the course tutors in an online format. It was exactly the kind of course I had been looking for. I already knew how to obtain a good OCT Scan and could do basic interpretation. With the aid of this course and the collaboration with my clinical supervisors I have a gained a much better understanding of how different medical/retinal conditions can alter the OCT scan and how the scans can be used to monitor the effectiveness of treatment’

Student - Derby and Burton NHSFT

‘Content is thorough, and appropriate, and keeps challenging the student. I appreciate the practical approach taken by your training, the involvement of our local team, and the entry level requirements. This approach has borne fruit in productive and well-grounded technicians as evidenced by the quality of their work’

Employer - eSwatini

‘In St. Lucia, fourteen individuals have successfully completed the Diabetic Retinopathy Screening course [so far]. The course provided practical knowledge, which is currently being used to assist clients with diabetes, to reduce the risk of vision loss as a result of diabetic retinopathy. On completion of the course, students have been able to screen and grade images confidently and determine the necessary management and referrals. This reduces the impact of diabetic eye disease on the client, their families and by extension, the country’

Employer - St. Lucia

‘I have developed a lot of confidence in Diabetic Retinopathy Screening because of the intense knowledge that I gained throughout the year while studying with Gloucestershire Retinal Education Group. The modules are simple to understand, they are offered timely and they give reference at all times for further studying. The course has tremendously enhanced my mentorship skills and has opened more doors for me both professionally and academically’

Student - Botswana

‘I must say that undergoing the DRS course has greatly improved my practice as it has enabled me to correctly grade diabetic retinopathy, and thus improve patients' management and follow up. The DRS course was one of the best online courses I have undertaken. The course content was easy to assess and greatly detailed with lots of demonstrative videos. Thank you Gloucestershire Retinal Education Group for the great job you are doing in helping to reduce the burden of blindness caused by diabetic retinopathy worldwide’

Student - Nigeria

I am an eye specialist who has obtained this certificate. I advise all health professionals, especially ophthalmologists, to obtain this certificate. This is because the curriculum contains practical topics that are not found in a textbook. This study adds practical experience on how to deal with all types of patients with diabetic retinopathy. In addition to the teaching staff and the teaching supervisors, they are knowledgeable people who do not hesitate to answer enquiries about anything concerning the course. I recommend this certificate.

Student - Iraq

 

 

‘I loved the flexibility of the Diploma course. The Accredited Centre accepted different ways to providing the competency evidence for example, through a professional discussion, written question, observations, reflection. This was extremely beneficial for me as I did struggle to complete certain units but with the different options I was able to use the method that made it easier for me’

DES - Screener

‘The on-line e-portfolio was easy to access and upload units; it was straight forward and easy to follow. I also liked the regular communications I received from the Accredited Centre team who offered friendly advice and guidance along the way. This helped me as it gave me a support network in addition to my local assessor’

AAA - Screener

‘I found the resources and support from the Accredited Centre was great; from registration, they were extremely helpful and set me on a path that I followed during the whole diploma. The Accredited Centre suggested using the ‘suggested learner assessment plan and this is what I continued to work from task by task. Using this plan gave me direction of how to complete the diploma. The suggested evidence indexing was also a very useful tool to help allocate my work, alongside my assessor, so that I could complete my tasks on time’

NBH - Screener

‘I have really enjoyed completing my CAVA course with Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. I have felt fully supported throughout my journey and as I develop my assessing skills, the support is still available to me. I look forward to assessing 4 learners within our Diabetic Eye Screening Programme as they start their own journey on the L3 Healthcare Diploma'.

CAVA - Diabetic Eye, Grading Lead

OCT Interpretation Modules 

'I took up my new role as Senior Paediatric ophthalmic photographer and was asked to attend the course by the Paediatric clinicians. Despite having 20 years' experience in ophthalmic imaging behind me, I found the course extremely helpful and informative. There are now plans for more staff to attend the course in the future.'

Student - Paediatric Module

Diabetic Retinopathy Grading Module

'I would like to thank you for the opportunity of the diabetic retinopathy grading course.The course was interesting and informative. It has  enabled me to do my grading more accurately since I am a diabetic nurse. The training has also improved my theory and clinical practice and now I can grade confidently. I am looking forward to more training from you.'

Student - DR Grading Module

OCT in Digital Surveillance

'The course is very well organised and conceived. By following the course, I was able to learn and build on the concepts with minimal questions or frustration. It taught me what I was looking to learn, was well organised and well-paced.  I'm already applying what I learned at work as a Diabetic Retinopathy Screener/Grader.'

Student - OCT in DS

'The course covered a wide range of diabetic and non-diabetic pathology and its typical characteristics on an OCT, giving me the confidence to identify and properly triage these in clinic.'

Student  - OCT in DS

Diabetes Eye Care - A Resource for Healthcare Professionals

‘I have to say that I really enjoyed the course. I know that I work at an eye centre but the course is ideal for first timers within this field. I found it easy to understand and follow. It will be beneficial for those starting diabetic eye screening but it’s been a while since I did the screening certificate (2011), and if this was around when I started it would have really helped’

Student - Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHSFT

‘Thank you for giving me an opportunity to participate in this very useful and interesting course which provides details on diabetic retinopathy. Likewise, it provides significant amount of information on normal anatomy of the eye and its fundus. The course was so detailed. Henceforth, I have learned to differentiate mild, moderate and severe diabetic retinopathy. I was able to recognise different features of diabetic eye...I will highly recommend this for my work colleagues’

Student - Moorfields Eye Hospital NHSFT

Laser in Ophthalmology Training

'Thanks for such a great course. I found it very informative and will be extremely useful in my role. I really had to work hard to complete the modules around work, however I was really pleased with the way the course was delivered in bitesize chunks, that I could work through and pick up and start when needed. Thank you so much for such a great course'.

Clinical Application Specialist - Carl Zeiss Limited