COT Certified Jobs

Once the hours are in, and the practice's schedule sets that date. IJCAHPO's usual route asks for a current COA plus 2,000 hours employed as a COA in the 24 months before you apply, with separate routes for graduates of accredited technician programs, for certified orthoptists and for the Fast Track built on non-certified hours. Our guide sets out each one.

IJCAHPO runs one as a specialty on top. Three of the 4 routes into its Ophthalmic Surgical Assisting certification start from a core credential in good standing, COA, COT or COMT, counting months in an accredited operating suite or a log of observed cases alongside a course. The fourth skips the core credential for surgical technology and nursing graduates, or for holders of IJCAHPO's own surgical processor certificate, and asks 6 months in a state-licensed or Medicare-certified suite plus a log of 15 observed cases. It points at ambulatory surgery centers and hospital eye theatres.

IJCAHPO says the opposite in writing: certification doesn't imply that the holder is qualified as an independent practitioner. The tier changes what a sponsoring ophthalmologist is willing to delegate and what a practice puts you on, which is why the same letters cover quite different days in 2 different clinics.