International eye care specialists Fred Hollows Foundation this week surprised Divine Word University staff and students of the university’s faculty of flexible learning (FFL) with free eye testing at the Madang campus.
Many staff and FFL students seized the opportunity to check the health of their eyes.
It was also an opportunity for nurses enrolled in the newly introduced post-graduate diploma in eye care programme at DWU to have some practical experience in conducting eye tests.
Fred Hollow’s Foundation, which specialises in eye care training and services, is in Madang to provide the expertise to the recently introduced post-graduate diploma in eye care course at DWU.
The year-long training is being conducted at DWU in collaboration with the foundation and Madang’s Modilon General Hospital, which is a designated teaching hospital.
Nurses from hospitals around the country are enrolled in the course.
The nurses working behind come from as far as Manus, Milne Bay and the Highlands provinces.
They will return home next month for their holidays.
The first batch of nurses currently studying is scheduled to graduate in February 2009.
The second intake will begin its studies in the first semester of 2008.
The eye care course received its first intake in July this year following a memorandum of understanding signed between former health minister Sir Peter Barter, Fred Hollows Foundation, DWU and Modilon General Hospital in Madang last May.