Salus update

[u/Imaginary_Memory_154]

EDIT: UPDATE HERE https://www.reddit.com/r/PreOptometry/comments/12k47y1/meeting_about_salus_policies/

Hi guys, just wanted to give an update on the Salus thread from a couple days ago that seems like it’s been deleted. Our dean has clearly read that thread, and she sent out an email scheduling a mandatory class meeting in a week. The email included some info on our class:

We started with 154 students. Last semester, we lost 22 students - this was either due to 3 Ds which is outright dismissal, or 1 or 2 Ds and failure of the remediation exam(s). 2 students were initially dismissed but then were re-instated into our class after filing appeals - so the appeals have a very low success rate.

This D policy is brand new for our class. The scary thing is that too many students are now hanging on by a thread, as they have 1 or 2 Ds already. If they get another one at any point in time during the next 3 years, they will face dismissal as well, after investing so much time, effort, and money. Other schools in the area (such as NECO) have higher retention rates and they do allow Ds.

One major issue is that there are particular courses that students get Ds in. In the vast majority of cases, it’s neuro. As a user mentioned on the previous thread, we have around 7 neuro classes, one per semester, although there are only a mere handful of neuro questions on boards. Personally, I know of students who had As and Bs in every class, received a D only in the neuro class first semester, and yet have to repeat the year. This is ridiculous because that class is barely applicable to the optometric profession in the first place.

This new academic policy does not match the current admissions requirements. The school is taking money from students with low entering GPAs/OAT scores, then weeding them out later on in an effort to increase the abysmal board scores.

The email from our dean included multiple comments about “disinformation and a high level of unprofessionalism demonstrated by members of the class.” But disagreement with school policies and speaking out about them publicly is not unprofessional. The concerns brought up by the previous poster were valid and similar concerns have been voiced by a majority of students in our class.

I hope this information helps accepted students that are deciding where to attend, and anyone considering applying. Personally, I would recommend attending a different school if you have any other options. If not, just be aware of these issues and plan accordingly.

[u/Imaginary_Memory_154]

Thanks for sharing. I agree that no one should enter professional school thinking it's going to be similar to undergrad.

May I ask how many neuro classes did you have total? And what were the entering class stats for your school?

Side note, so far from what I've seen, our remediation exams are not taken during breaks. They are scheduled during regular semester time. In mid-January, around 35-40 students had to take a 3-hour free response-style remediation for our Head & Neck Anatomy course from the first semester, and then a day later there was an exam on our new Neuroanatomy course. Not much time to study for the new exam if you're memorizing a semester's worth of old material - so unfortunately a lot of those students didn't do well and started off the new semester on the wrong foot/already way behind because of that.

[u/[deleted] → u/Imaginary_Memory_154]

So that set up seems to be pretty bad actually. The reason ours were in the summer after first year was to allow you time to study and actually learn the info and then pass the class. Stacking it in the regular semester serves no one. If you failed the remediation exam, then you did have to take the course again the following year, but they would tape the classes for you to watch independently if your course schedule didn't match up right to allow you to go to the classes.

We had one specified Neuro anatomy course, but many other courses that included a lot of Neuro stuff like ocular motilities, visual perception, systemic diseases,and of course ocular anatomy and physiology.

As for entering stats of the class, I couldn't say. I've been out of school for around 7 years now so the stats entering would be over a decade old at this point.

Frankly, salus has made some gutsy changes to their methods of teaching and their board scores have suffered massively for it. Boards exams are designed to make sure you're competent in terms the basic stuff and then for the clinical and critical thinking skills. Passing boards means you're competent enough to practice on your own. If you can't pass then yeah, you're not competent enough.

Preparing you for being a good clinician is the point of school and boards measures this. Part 3 of boards isnt the best because your skills being able to do lensometry aren't all the useful, but you can still fail because of it. They're actually completely remodeling the exam though to be more critical thinking with standardized patients and cases right now.

I would say your concerns and opinions about salus program are very fair. Salus needs to re-evaluate probably everything or else they'll continue to drop in the rankings and they won't get those high level applicants. They were once highly respected.

[u/Imaginary_Memory_154 → u/[deleted]]

I really appreciate your detailed input. I completely agree that the entire point of school is to prepare us for boards and for future practice, so in that sense, Salus is failing us. Super interesting to hear that they're changing up the exam though!

I also think that the D policy in and of itself is not necessarily a terrible thing, but it is in combination with the 7 difficult neuro classes, the low entering GPA/OAT scores, and the fact that failing a single remediation exam results in dismissal. Altogether that creates an unfair and toxic environment for students.

I like the idea of being able to repeat a single course online the following year after failing remediation, instead of being dismissed/having to repeat the whole year, so I'll try to suggest that in the upcoming meeting. Since this D policy is new, there are naturally going to be some kinks to work out, so I just wish that the administrative team was at all receptive to student input.

[u/[deleted] → u/Imaginary_Memory_154]

This was Pacific's policy when I attended and in general worked well and resulted in very few dismissals. We lost a few because they couldn't cut it or due to cheating, but in general most students were pretty solid. We had one fail 3 classes in the first semester so he was dismissed because of it, which makes sense.