Glaucoma: Group trains ophthalmic nurses to improve management, prevention

On Nov 28, 2024

The Faculty of Ophthalmology, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, has commenced training for ophthalmic nurses to enhance glaucoma diagnosis and prevention, thereby reduce the number of patients with glaucoma.

The five-day training, tagged “Vision 2020 Link Glaucoma” was organised by the Department of Ophthalmology, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), in collaboration with Moorfield Eye Hospital, London on Wednesday in Lagos.

Speaking, Adeola Onakoya, Professor of Ophthalmology, said the essence of the training was to improve glaucoma management, enhance screening and increase the number of clinicians that attend to glaucoma patients.

Onakoya, also Head, Glaucoma Services, LUTH, said the objective was to train and provide more nurses for glaucoma management so as to relieve workload on the few available ophthalmology doctors.

She explained that there was limited number of ophthalmologists that handle the numerous glaucoma patients, saying that glaucoma patients constitute more that 40 per cent of the total number of patients who come for eye clinic.

According to her, the ophthalmic nurses are trained on how to check the eye pressure, do eye scan, run the visual-field tests and also how to handle some visual management machines.

“The five-day training which started on Monday 25 to Friday 29 aims to train ophthalmic nurses for glaucoma management not in the area of treatment in particular, but in the areas of screening, prevention and diagnosis.

“The reason is that glaucoma is a chronic disease that affect large number of people and there are few available ophthalmology doctors to attend to them.

“So, having nurses in the management of glaucoma; to diagnose, screen, give appointments and even stabilise patients before taking them to see ophthalmologists will go a long way to help in prevention of glaucoma.

“It will not only help to relieve the burden of workloads on ophthalmologists, but also help to reduce the numbers of glaucoma patients that visit hospitals and equally help in prevention of glaucoma because early detection is key.

“These people that are trained are expected to cascade the training down to their various Institutions as we have ophthalmic nurses from Calabar, Abuja and Lagos on the training. So, they are expected to go back to their various Institutions to train other ophthalmic nurses,” Onakoya said.

The National Chairman, Nigerian Ophthalmic Nurses Association, Mr Ibrahim Usman, identified age, hereditary and race as major risk factors of glaucoma.

Usman, also an Ophthalmic Nurse, said that glaucoma progresses with age, saying that the older an individual becomes, the higher his/her chances of developing glaucoma.

“In as much as age, race, trauma and self medication are risk factors for glaucoma, the most common one is hereditary.

“Glaucoma runs in the gene; if a member of the family is diagnosed of having glaucoma, there is tendency that other members of the family either younger or older ones may have the disease.

“Similarly, any person that have reached the age of 50 and above is likely to develop glaucoma due to degeneration.

“So, it is advisable that once an individual reach the age of 50, he/she shouldn’t hesitate to be checking the eye for at least once or twice per year, because early detection can ensure the condition is controlled.

Speaking, Elizabeth Ojeyinka, Nurse Team in Glaucoma Clinic, Moorfield Eye Hospital, called for increased screenings and awareness campaigns on glaucoma to provide the public with the right information.

Ojeyinka said that more than 80 per cent of glaucoma patients present their condition late due to lack of right information.

According to her, there is urgent need for more advocacy on glaucoma so that people would be made to understand that the disease can be managed and no one needs to loss his/her sight to glaucoma.

NAN/Wumi