LEARNING GUIDE

EYE EXAMINATION

MODULE 1
Mini Lecture : Eye Examination I
Learning Guide : History Taking, Distance Visual Acuity Testing, Pinhole Visual
Acuity Testing

Eye Examination Learning Guide

Procedure Student
History Taking
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Student able to perform :
1. Make an interview with appropriate intonation,
manner and make the patient in convenience
condition.
2. Retrieve the patient’s main complain and record in
patient’s word
3. Collect information about the patient’s present
illness, including :
a. Time and manner of onset
b. Severity
c. Influences
d. Constancy and temporal variations
e. Laterality
f. Clarification
g. Documentation
4. Retrieve the information about patient’s past ocular
history in the term of why, when, how, where, and
by whom, as applicable, including :
a. Use of eyeglasses or contact lenses
b. Use of medication in the past
c. Ocular surgery (including laser surgery)
d. Ocular trauma
e. History of amblyopia or ocular patching in
childhood
5. Collect the information about patient’s ocular
medication
6. Collect the information about patient’s general
medical and surgical history
7. Collect the information about patient’s systemic
medication
8. Retrieve the history about patient’s allergies,
including the onset, the cause and any other related
9. Collect the information about patient’s social history
10. Collect the information about patient’s family
history either ocular or non ocular family disease
Distance Visual Acuity Testing
Student able to perform :
1. Place the patient at the designated distance, usually
20 feet (6 m), from a well-iluminated Snellen chart.
If glasses are normally worn for distance vision, the
patient should wear them.
2. By convention, the right eye is tested and recorded
first. Completely occlude the left eye using an
opaque occluder or the palm of your hand;
alternatively, have the patient cover the eye
3. Ask the patient to read the smallest line in which he
or she distinguish more than one half of the letters.
(if the E chart is being used, have the patient
designate the direction in which the strokes of the E
point)
4. Record the acuity measurement as a notation (eg,
20/20) in which the numerator represents the
distance at which the test is performed and the
denomirator represents the numeric designation for
the line read
5. Repeat the procedure for the other eye
6. If visual acuity is 20/40 or less in one or both eyes,
repeat the test with the subject viewing the test chart
through a pinhole occluder and record these
result.The pinhole occluder may be used over the
subject’s glasses.
Pinhole Visual Acuity Testing
Student able to perform:
1. Position the patient and occlude the eye not
being tested , as done for the distance acuity test
2. Ask the patient to hold the pinhole occluder in
front of the eye that is to be tested. The patient’s
habitual correction should be worn for the test
3. Instruct the patient to look at the distance chart
through the single pinhole
4. Ask the patient to begin to read the line with the
smallest letters that are legible as determined on
the previous vision test without the use of the
pinhole
5. Record the Snellen acuity obtained and precede
or follow it with the abbreviation ‘PH’
6. Repeat steps 1 through 6 for the fellow eye
If the patient is unable to see the largest Snellen,proceed
as follows:
1. If the patient unable to see the largest Snellen,
hold up one hand, extend two or more fingers,
and ask the patient to count the number of the
fingers. Record the distance at which counting
fingers is done accurately. (eg, CF 1 ft)
2. If the patient cannot count fingers, determine
whether or not he or she can detect the movement
and mention the direction of your hand. Record a
positive response as hand motion (eg, HM 2 ft)

3. If the patient cannot detect hand motion, use a

pen light to determine whether she or he can
detect the direction or perception of the light.
Record the patient’s response as LP with
projection (light perception with direction), LP
without direction (light perception), or NLP (no
light perception)