There’s an obvious reason a young person chooses to go to university – to start the journey leading to a fruitful professional life. But for Yorkshire-born Nkosi Yearwood MCOptom, his optometry degree at Cardiff University opened up something more – it revealed not just what he wanted to do, but where and how he wanted to do it.
“I loved Cardiff as a city so much, I never left. I’m very glad because, as an optometrist, you can do more in Wales than you can in England, especially in terms of how you can practise and the level of responsibility you can take on. And if you want to go beyond core optometry, there’s excellent support within the structure of Welsh General Ophthalmic Services [WGOS],” Nkosi says.
Alongside his clinical practice, Nkosi has found opportunities to contribute directly to the profession. As well as being a prescribing optometrist at an independent practice, a freelance professional education optometrist at SCOPE Eyecare and Healthcare, and a teacher practitioner at Cardiff University, Nkosi is chair of the Welsh Optometric Committee (WOC) and a College Councillor for Wales.
“I love understanding why something is the way it is. That’s helped me a lot in terms of clinical progression, and in navigating optical politics. If you want to understand the system, you’ve got to go to meetings and understand the decision-making process, and why the system works the way it does,” Nkosi says.
“I went to my first regional optical committee [ROC] meeting as a first-year student. I had no idea what most of the discussion meant – there were so many acronyms – but I stuck with it, the people were really welcoming, and that led to a lot of opportunities and support.”
Nkosi’s ROC introduced a new seat – “student representative” – which Nkosi became the first person to hold, and that evolved to “newly qualified representative”. Then he joined the College Council, where he received an equally warm welcome.
“Having friendly people around you makes all the difference because you get nervous when joining new things, particularly when sitting with people who have a lot more experience. But, in my experience, they’re happy to listen and enthusiastic for you to contribute to that collegiate atmosphere.”