After a rewarding 35-year career in hospital optometry, it was time for a change. Not yet ready for full retirement, I am delighted to be pursuing my new Acuity editorial role, which enables me to remain engaged with the changes affecting our profession. I wish my predecessor Jane all the best as she looks forward to enjoying her retirement – she will be a hard act to follow! On reflection, I feel proud to have instigated many positive changes in my career, with some rippling through the profession as a whole. 

As Bob Dylan sang: “Come gather round people wherever you roam / And admit that the waters around you have grown.” As I reflect on the contents of this issue of Acuity, it is clear that change in optometry continues apace. 

I established children’s refraction clinics at Sunderland Eye Infirmary in collaboration with my orthoptic colleagues over 30 years ago. Identifying hyperopia in children continues to be a challenge, particularly when symptoms are missed and opportunities to undertake objective assessment, including retinoscopy, are overlooked, as reported in our article, The hidden ‘opia’. With mounting evidence linking uncorrected hyperopia to developmental delay, amblyopia and educational underachievement, more consistent, comprehensive paediatric optometric management is a crucially needed change.

I have fitted many scleral and prosthetic shells following traumatic injuries and found this specialist work highly rewarding. In our article Prosthetic eyes: an art and a science, we have a fascinating review of the history of ancient prosthetics to today’s custom-painted devices.

I have trained countless pre-reg optometrists and medical students, where teaching the basics helps build sound clinical judgement. According to the article Does confrontation functional field testing still have a role in modern optometry?, confrontation is on the wane, despite being the simplest way to assess a visual field in clinical practice. Like retinoscopy, confrontation is a skill to be lost at our peril, because it can be used almost everywhere and on everyone and should remain an essential clinical tool, even in an age of high-tech diagnostics. 

Being a certain age and a snorer, and having a family history of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), I read with interest the article Sleep apnoea and AMD: the emerging evidence. Research suggests an association between nocturnal hypoxia caused by sleep apnoea and neovascular AMD, identifying a potential new modifiable risk factor. More robust evidence is required to confirm this link. 

Having worked in the NHS at a senior management level, undertaking busy outpatient clinics involving complex caseloads, there are times when things get very stressful. Chronic job-related stress and mental health issues are an increasing concern among optometrists. 

According to recent research reported in How to avoid burnout, one in three UK optometrists are experiencing mental wellbeing challenges. Bob Dylan’s lyrics said: “And you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone.” By taking practical, achievable steps to alleviate mental health issues and improve resilience and supporting each other by establishing an “open-door” culture, change can be a positive experience, leading to exciting new opportunities.

Image credit | Caroline Andrieu