ABSTRACT
The ophthalmic nurse requires special skills of observation and history taking, together with the ability to care for a patient who has received trauma to the eye or its surrounding area. Penetrating injury and ocular burns are considered ophthalmic emergencies. Blunt trauma can result in serious ocular damage. Therefore, the nurse must take an accurate history, examine the eye carefully and decide in what order of priority each patient presenting with ocular trauma needs to be placed. An intraocular foreign body results when something enters the eye under force, such as fragments generated when using a hammer and chisel or a lathe. The foreign body may lodge itself in any of the structures of the eye, and examination may not reveal its presence, highlighting the importance of history taking. Subconjunctival haemorrhage can result from a penetrating or blunt trauma which causes the conjunctival blood vessels to bleed.
