College of Optometry (CO) 2025–2026 100 Core Performance Standards for Admission and Progress Intellectual, Conceptual, Integrative, and Qualitative Abilities These abilities include measurement, calculation, reasoning, analysis, and synthesis. Problem-solving—a critical skill—requires all of these intellectual abilities. Candidates and students must have critical thinking ability sufficient for good clinical judgment. This is necessary to identify cause-effect relationships in clinical situations and to develop plans of care. In addition, candidates and students should be able to comprehend three-dimensional relationships and to understand the spatial relationships of structures. An individual is expected to be able to perform multiple tasks in a dynamic, highly competitive, and challenging learning environment. Examples include, and are not limited to, identification of cause/ effect relationships in clinical situations, development of treatment plans, transferring knowledge from one situation to another, evaluating outcomes, problem-solving, prioritizing, and using short- and longterm memory. All individuals are expected to meet their program requirements on a satisfactory level as determined by the administration or the applicable college/program administration. Interpersonal Communication Candidates and students must be able to interact and communicate effectively with respect to policies, protocols, and process, with faculty and staff members, students, patients, patient surrogates, and administration during the student’s educational program. They must be able to communicate effectively and sensitively with patients. Communication includes not only speech, but also reading and writing. Candidates and students must also be able to communicate effectively and efficiently in all written forms with all members of the health care team. They must have interpersonal abilities sufficient to interact with individuals, families, and groups from a variety of social, emotional, cultural, and intellectual backgrounds. A student must have sufficient proficiency with English to retrieve information from texts and lectures and communicate concepts on written exams and patient charts; elicit patient backgrounds; describe patient changes in moods, activity, and posture; and coordinate patient care with all members of the health care team. A student must be able to communicate or provide communication in lay language so that patients and their families can understand the patient’s conditions, treatment options, and instructions. The student must be able to accurately enter information in the patient’s electronic health record, according to the program’s requirements. Motor Skills Candidates and students must have sufficient motor function to execute movements reasonably required to provide general care and emergency treatment to patients. Examples of emergency treatment reasonably required of some health care professionals are cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), administration of intravenous medication, the application of pressure to stop bleeding, the opening of obstructed airways, and the ability to calibrate and use various pieces of equipment. Such actions require coordination of both gross and fine muscular movements, equilibrium, and functional use of the senses of touch and vision.
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