On Wednesday 6^th March I will be at the optometry table at a careers event for students from five high schools in Brisbane. I’ve put together a few bullet points to give an overview of what optometry is all about. I’m hoping to cover these points in 10 minutes……

1.     A typical day:

• See about 15 patients a day, but can be up to 25 (most practices run 30 minute appointments, but some run 20 minute appointments)
• All age groups – babies & kids through to the elderly
• Standard eye test – check eye alignment, vision, focusing, health of the eyes – front, inside and pressure – you might find eye diseases lurking
• Other consultations – contact lens fitting and check-ups, treat minor eye injuries and infections, foreign body removal (e.g. metal), reviews of dry/allergy eyes after you have recommended treatment, peripheral vision checks, spectacle prescription checks after cataract surgery, photography to monitor an eye condition, people presenting with new symptoms, sign off on meeting the visual requirements to legally drive (yearly over 75 years of age)

2. The industry in Australia – market share:

• 26% OPSM/Laubman and Pank/Budget Eyewear (collectively this is under an umbrella company Luxottica)
• 19% Specsavers
• 18% independent practice
• 11% ProVision – an independent group
• 8% Big W Vision, National Pharmacies, 1001 Optical, Blink (BUPA) and other corporate groups
• 6% Eyecare Plus – an independent group
• 3% The Optical Superstore
• That is, around 56% market share is corporates/chain stores

3. Courses in Australia:

• QUT – 5 years – usually OP 2, I have heard that this year it was an OP 3
• University of New South Wales – 5 years
• University of Melbourne – 7 years
• Deakin University – 3.5 years (3 trimesters a year)
• Flinders University – 5 years

4.     Areas of specialization include:

• Behavioural optometry – 1 year program – greater knowledge of vision training (eye exercises), hand-eye coordination – mostly useful in kids
• Low vision – people can be born with poor vision or lose their vision due to disease or injury – prescribing magnifying devices, referring for appropriate services such as orientation and mobility training and gadgets such as talking watches/computer programs with audio functions
• Therapeutics – ability to prescribe eye drops for eye infections and diseases (now included in undergrad courses)
• Contact lenses – some people have eye conditions which mean the front of the eye is irregular, and so they won’t be able to see properly without custom-made contact lenses
• Ophthalmology – some optometrists assist eye specialists in their practice, performing pre- and post- operative tests
• Research/academia – PhD etc, teaching

5. Salaries:

• 2012 median graduate salary was $79,000 p.a. (second to dentistry at $80,000 p.a.) – Source – GradStats
• Check classifieds: http://eyesmart.com.au/classifieds or http://www.mivision.com.au/classifieds/positions-vacant/

6. How might you practice?

• Practice ownership:

a)      Own a practice

b)      Take on the franchise rights (e.g. Specsavers, OPSM, Laubman and Pank)

• Employment:

a)      Full time

b)      Part time

c)      Casual

• Locum:

a)      Fill in when practice owner on holidays

b)      Companies such as OPSM/Laubman and Pank/Specsavers/The Optical Superstore have block work available in Australian regional areas

c)      Rural initiatives such as the Cape York Eye Program

• Volunteer:

a)      There are opportunities in countries such as Tanzania (http://www.onanetwork.org/) and Papua New Guinea (http://www.ywamships.org.au/).

7. It helps if:

• You are prepared for the fact that there will be a competitive jobs market in the future
• You have a genuine interest in people, & want to care for them…. even if they are grumpy & having a bad day…. you will literally come across hundreds of personalities a month!!
• You are a bit of a perfectionist – getting people’s glasses and contact lenses right isn’t always straightforward – and yes, they will keep coming back until you get it right!!
• You are aware that you optometry is a mixture of health care and retail – different practices may focus on different aspects of optometry
• You are aware that especially in the first few years of practice, you might find yourself working Thursday nights, Saturdays, Sundays
• You are willing to learn how to communicate well with people, which mainly involves listening….. a lot of listening!!
• You are prepared to tailor your advice to people’s individual eye care needs.
• You have a steady hand – things like removing a foreign bodies and plucking out eyelashes aren’t so easy if you’re a bit shaky!!
• You are committed to lifelong learning – new medications, new contact lenses, new spectacle lens designs and new eye disease treatments will affect the way you manage your patients – you need to keep up!!
• You have an interest in maths, physics, chemistry and biology (this is mainly useful to get through the early stages of the uni course; the calculations you use in optometric practise aren’t that complicated).

Amanda – optometrist and founder My Health Career. :-)