I also work occasionally for the local community eye care scheme (LECS) based in a local GP’s surgery and do this about one day per week. We triage the patients and treat and discharge the majority of them. We refer any patients we can’t treat on to the hospital eye service. The overall aim is to reduce the load on hospital outpatients.
I'm a senior assessor in the north west for the College. I have 12 trainees that I assess but much of the work involves providing advice and support to other assessors, by phone or email. I'm also a College examiner and on the final assessment panel for the College of Optometrists.
I represent community optometry on the College Higher qualifications panel too and assist in reviewing applications from universities and other academic institutions."
Career progression
"I was keen to supervise a trainee as quickly as possible after I qualified because my own pre-reg. stage was so good and rewarding.
I worked for a large multiple as a pre-reg. and then stayed on as an optometrist becoming the area trainer for optical assistants and running pre-reg. tutorials. I then became a College examiner and that started all the other work I do for the College.
I moved to another multiple and started assessing work. After a while I cut my time in practice down from five days to three per week so I had time to devote to my other duties.
This was my last employed position as I then decided to become self-employed as it gives me more flexibility."
Changes in the profession
"The role of an optometrist has completely changed in many respects since I qualified, both from the commercial pressures as well as the technology available. High street optometrists have many more methods to detect changes, but just because we can detect and find a problem we should recognise that we may not always know how to manage it in the best way for the patient.
With the advancement of technology, there are also many more ‘specialist' optometrists than there were. This gives us all much more responsibility, which in many ways is great. I do think, though, that we need to make sure we're appropriately qualified and experienced to make good decisions."
What I enjoy
"What I enjoy most about my work is that there's no typical week, it’s not a 9-5 job.
To be self-employed you need to be organised and strict with yourself, so I don’t say 'yes' to everything that’s offered. It’s better to be selective and do it well.
I'm very content with my work life balance at the moment and it's hard to think how things could improve, which is a very fortunate position to be in!"
