Our objective was to assess junior house officer (JHO) practice of visual acuity testing and ophthalmoscopy in clerking patients.
Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study using a standardised structured interview technique.
Setting: A Scottish university teaching hospital employing 65 JHOs.
Participants: All medical and surgical JHOs from this hospital were interviewed over a three month period.
Main outcome measures: Questionnaire-based data on the subjective responses studying current practice of visual acuity testing, and direct ophthalmoscopy with and without topical mydriatics.
Results: 18.5% and 4.6% of participants perform daily ophthalmoscopy and visual acuity testing respectively. Most do not routinely use the Snellen chart (80.0%) or topical mydriatics during ophthalmoscopy (75.4%). JHOs claimed these were not easily available in the wards.
Conclusions: The majority of JHOs fail to test visual acuity or perform ophthalmoscopy in clerking patients. This study highlights the poor availability of Snellen charts, functioning ophthalmoscopes, and topical mydriatics in the wards. This warrants further investigation.