the career of Optometry

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RoninStudent

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Hey all,

I'm interested in going to optometry school in August 2004, and just wanted some feedback from this forum. It'd probably help to know that I recently finished my undergrad in CA, got accepted into M.D. medical school, and defered my acceptance for 1 year. There were things I was unsure of about about med so I decided it was worth it to take a year and look into other possible things, like OD. For example:

-I enjoy patient care, but the workload and stress of physicans is incredible. I want a career with regular hours (like 7 or 8 in the morn till 5 or 6 at night) Unlike probably most in med, I like medicine, but it's not my only passion, I like my weekends and evenings mostly free, and I enjoy pursuing other things outside of work. I can't see myself working the 70 hour work week for 50 years, cause I simply don't love medicine that much.

-However I like the variety of medicine, and if being an OD means seeing the same things over and over again, fitting glasses and contacts all day long, than I wont survive there either, even if the workload is less. In a sense, medicine overwhelms me to the point I doubt I would enjoy it, and optometry scares me that I'll start to feel useless and not be doing anything of significance after a few years or so.

Well, if anyone's got any opinions I'm glad to hear them. Either way, I'm going to spend some time shadowing with some OD's for a while before deciding. First hand experiences are always better than internet research anyhow.

-RoninStudent
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Dear RoninStudent,

I think your approach is excellent.

1. "over and over again" also occurs in medicine, dentistry, etc.
2. Shadow an optometrist in several environments and in several specialities. There are optometrists who are in private practice who are generalists, pediatric and children's vision and "medically" oriented.
3. There also optometrists who practice in association or "under" an ophthalmologist that will do preliminary workups and do their own personal patients. Some also work in refractive surgery or cataract centers.
4. Your concept of the hours of an optometrists should be tempered by the "mode of practice" that you see. Some optometrists who practice in a mall will have to keep weekend or early evening hours to some degree. Most private practice optometrists work just the daytime hours. I have a hospital and community healthcare scenario and work only the usual work day hours.
5. I've changed my career twice from management and computer consulting to optometry to computer consulting and then back to optometry without too much effort. That's what I can say that I appreciate about optometry. Although this is also possible for medicine, a disruption as such might forestall a succesful medical career due to the rigid schedule needed to attain the requisite residency and fellowship credentials for certification, etc.

If you are in the NCalif area, would be glad to have you shadow me.

Regards,
Richard_Hom

Originally posted by RoninStudent
"....I'm interested in going to optometry school in August 2004, and just wanted some feedback from this forum. Well, if anyone's got any opinions I'm glad to hear them. Either way, I'm going to spend some time shadowing with some OD's for a while before deciding. First hand experiences are always better than internet research anyhow...'

-RoninStudent
Click to expand...
 
Best of luck Ronin. i think u've hit the nail on the positives/negatives in terms of work schedules for both professions. i have 9 doctors in my immediate family (incl. aunts/uncles, etc.) , and all i can say is their extra/free time is definitely a luxury; at the same time they love what they do!

But dont forget that especially with optometry, ...its what you make of it, despite the rare critics! :D plus theres lotsa help on the OD forums; like Dr. Hom suggested, i would shadow a few different optometrists

Tony
 
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Optometry? Just do the time in med school and you have almost unlimited options unlike optometry. It's limited by what state law and your store manager, senior doctor who signs your paycheck. I am not joking here.
 
You might not be joking..........but your wrong. You don't have a store manager or senior doc if you work for yourself.
 
I tend to agree with optcom here,

An MD degree allows you to do alot more (although I'm not sure yet exactly what outside of clinical medicine), while an OD lets you practice optometry, and not much beyond that. In retrospect, since I'm only deciding at this point to do MD or OD education, either way I'm looking at 4 years schooling of education with debt of $100K or more. So time & $ costs are the same for both options. Now say I go OD and decide It's not fullfilling enough, or that I hate being and OD. At that point it'd be too late for me to go MD, (that'd mean at least another 2 years prep in application time and another $100K in debt at the age of 27, it's not worth it). So I wouldn't be in a good situation. Say I went MD instead and decided after my 4 years that I hate that (knowing how touchy I am about lifestyle and normal working hours, i.e. less than 65 hrs a week, this may happen). Then I'd leave, but maybe have more options open to me. My general feeling is this, at this point I have the chance to attend med school, something few people can do. Reguardless of my misgivings about how I can't handle the work hours or the volume of information, it's not worth it now to disguard the chance at an MD degree for an OD degree. The fact is if I really feel I am wasting my life in either school, the cost to me of leaving outright is the same for both, but the benefit if I do decide to stick it out is much much greater in med. I welcome critisism or comments, even from the most critical posters on this board.

-Ronin
 
Well said, You can do optometry with MD degree. Tom has to agree with me on this one. Just looking at pharmacist, optometrist will follow their steps in 20 years. Wish you luck at med school. Wish I could have my 4 wasted years back.
 
Follow your heart go to med school. Greater options out there and opportunities than being an OD. These first year students at ICO and SUNY and etc have no idea what they are talking about. They are just excited about being in Optometry school and the overwhelming fact they believe in there minds as well as what has been instilled into there brains from the administrators that they are going to be real eye doctors. Optometry school curriculum is phased into a basic science and clinical correlation program paralling med schools. With this in mind, they are concentrating heavily into disease processes and treatment. To reflect the state legislatures of optometric practice. They are just fooling these poor souls. When they get out they'll be nothing more than an optometrist. Medical surgical treament is and will always be done by ophthalmology. The tuition in OD school has become outrageous. They think they will all graduate as being junior ophthalmoilogists. Go to med school. One day eyegirl r-salis - and the rest of the company who have no clue about how great they think optometry is will wake up to the reality. This profession has no respect generally speaking.
Forget about the very few who think are optometric physicians- glaucoma specialists and so on......there in there own world as well- academia and so forth.........
 
ALL fields of health care are limited because health care is so very specialized.

An MD degree will give you latitude initially but once you branch into a speciality, you will basically be limited to that speciality.

I had the recent chance to visit a urologist (kidney stone...ouch). He was very good at what he does (I guess), but he had no clue about.......say eyecare. He was recently diagnosed with central serous chorioretinopathy and spend the better part of 'my' exam asking me to explain this to him.

The pediatrician we take our kids to.....................treats kids. She couldn't help me with my kidney stones and struggled with remembering what an IVP test was. (She didn't know).

The primary care Internist is about as close to "doing everything" like your talking about but they're essentially limited to "cuts and bruises". Anything requiring much more thought/effort is sent to a specialist in many cases (ie. cardiology, rheumatology, neurology, urology, etc...).

Ophthalmologists, for instance, are not treating sore throats, splinting fractures, or treating hypertension. Could they? Sure.......if they remembered how. Do they? Not in my experience.

These are generalizations of course, but I think accurate.

EVERYONE is limited, either by licence, by choice, or by reality of economics/ethics.
 
I totally agree that all heathcare providers are specialists in one form or another (MD, OD, DDS, etc...). When I mentioned that the MD degree gave you more career freedom I didn't mean in scope of practice, I meant outside of medicine. For example, if I earned my MD and decided that I hated the hours, lifestyle, and mass of information, and wanted to leave primary care for a better family/social life, than an MD would be more valuable to me than an OD. Sigh.....its a hard decision. On one hand OD may leave me unsatisfied with what I'm doing in my career, and MD may leave me overwhelmed with 70 hour workweeks and hating my lifestyle.

-Ronin
 
i know there's a war going on at the dental forum right now with one egocentric med student, but have you thought about dentistry as another alternative?

good money
good hours
everybody love their dentists
you get to do surgical procedures (although certain detractors don't consider anything less than cardiac bypass as surgery...oh well)

just a suggestion
 
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I have looked at dentistry, and I'll agree, alot of the stupid identity conflict that goes on in OD is not a problem in DDS. Plus they have good work hours and excellent pay. But I believe 110% that you have to be doing something you love, no matter how easy or good lifestyle it is, if you dont love doing it you'll be in hell. (RC will certainly agree here). As it is I don't have any interest in dentistry, I don't care for teeth, the mouth, etc. I at least have a passing interest in optometry. I'll add that I really dislike my dentist, hes a great person but I dread seeing him. I really like seeing my optometrist though.

-Ronin

P.S. I'll add my two cents to the OD/OMD argument. Alot of conflict is coming from OD's trying to expand their scope of work. I agree that optometry should expand, it would be nice if all careers felt the same drive to expand and do alot more. if teachers, politicians, lawyers, etc. etc. all wanted to acomplish more and help more people the world would be a much better place. Optometrists should be allowed to do more, but the whole problem is those who feel optometry should venture into surgery. Expansion is fine, but expanding into another field is not. OD's take care of one aspect of eye-care, OMD's take care of another. Both are equally important (none of this bull**** that OMD's are more respected professionals), but they are distinct professions. The educations and experiences are just way to different. If I had to say, I'd blame OMD's more for the problem. OMD's are responding to OD's expanding cause some of them act like pompous asses, looking down on others cause they're MD's. OD's do need to refocus their goals and realize where expansion will serve them best (not in surgury), but they're not being as blind as overcritical OMD's are. As far as salary goes, stop comparing OD salary to OMD salary. Almost no profession in America matches that of physicians, NONE. realize that OD's are not physicians and you'll be much happier. Besides, OD's make on average $75-85K, thats hellava lot. Considering the avg. salary in the US is like $26K, optometrists are very well off. It's comparing them to physicians that make them seem poorer, Duh! Almost any profession will seem poor compared to physicians. Optometry is one of the top 15 careers in the USA as far as salary goes, period. I certainly wish that such conflict did not have to exist, but as it is, of all non MD healthcare professions (DDS, PA, Nurse, OD, Chiropractor, Vet), OD is the one that happens to "blend" with an MD profession the most.
 
Hi Ronin -- I have been reading your posts on this thread, and I'm really impressed with your maturity and self-possession about your decision of which professional path to follow.

Without really knowing much more about you than what I've read on this thread, I would advise you to go to medical school over optometry school (assuming that your dislike of crazy workload and work hours is about having a career in medicine, not being a medical student ;) ). As an MD, you don't need to have a really intense career -- you could aim for a specialty that has more reasonable hours, or work as a part-time family physician -- or a physician with limited hours in a group practice. Your options will eventually narrow somewhat as you are made to choose a specialty in medical school, but you would have a few more years to learn about which speciality would suit you best. Unless you have a true passion for optometry, I wouldn't recommend going to optometry school.

I chose optometry based on many considerations -- 1) I'm a little older than the "usual" student, and while I love being in school, practically I don't want to deal with the timeline of medical school and residency. 2) I think medicine would be interesting, but I don't have the passion for it I'd need to have to make the extra years of education worth it for me. 3) I wanted options -- hours, modes of practice, flexibility -- and a low-stress career (like you), and I know I can have that with optometry. 4) I realize that I'll be doing a lot of the same things every day, but that suits my temperment better than ER/surgery/whatever types of crazy all-adrenaline situations. I like watching that kind of thing on TV, but the enjoyment I get out of work (in the career I had before returning to school) was in the personal interactions I had with people. My satisfaction won't be from repairing the weirdest surgical defect ever reported, it'll come from knowing that I made someone see better and possibly improved his quality of life somewhat.

Sorry for the rambling post. ;)
 
I really like my dentist too, but I don't exactly look forward to going to see him. Although we do get to rag on each other since we were both chem majors at rival colleges. And then he teases me about not going to dental school. It makes the visit more interesting that's for sure.
 
Thanks r_salis,

I can honestly say that's the first time I can remember someone calling my crazyness "mature". I tend to obsess alot about things I'm anal about, like having balance between work and relaxation, and getting to do the things you have a passion about. As you say, and I'm starting to agree, that thinking shouldn't keep me out of medical school. Sure, med school is a hard 4 years (120 hour/week sometimes in 3rd year). But as it's said, it gets better after that, and docs do have control over their lives. No one true person is a slave to their profession. If I get out into the world and my family life starts to suffer, or I find myself not doing some of the things I want to do in life because of medicine (I really want to spend some time in Japan, cause I just love it so much, haha), than its as easy as doing something about it. Cutting back on hours, finding a flexible group practice, hell, even leaving med to teach english in Japan for a while etc. etc. I get the feeling I belong in med, but still I know I'm not as secure as I could be. I'm glad I took this year to spend time shadowing docs, I feel come this summer I'll be a better med student because of it. I'm still gonna spend a little time shadowing an OD, who knows, I may surprisingly love it. But in all likelyhood I see myself in med school in 2004.

-Ronin
 
Originally posted by RoninStudent
Thanks r_salis,

I can honestly say that's the first time I can remember someone calling my crazyness "mature". I tend to obsess alot about things I'm anal about, like having balance between work and relaxation, and getting to do the things you have a passion about. As you say, and I'm starting to agree, that thinking shouldn't keep me out of medical school. Sure, med school is a hard 4 years (120 hour/week sometimes in 3rd year). But as it's said, it gets better after that, and docs do have control over their lives. No one true person is a slave to their profession. If I get out into the world and my family life starts to suffer, or I find myself not doing some of the things I want to do in life because of medicine (I really want to spend some time in Japan, cause I just love it so much, haha), than its as easy as doing something about it. Cutting back on hours, finding a flexible group practice, hell, even leaving med to teach english in Japan for a while etc. etc. I get the feeling I belong in med, but still I know I'm not as secure as I could be. I'm glad I took this year to spend time shadowing docs, I feel come this summer I'll be a better med student because of it. I'm still gonna spend a little time shadowing an OD, who knows, I may surprisingly love it. But in all likelyhood I see myself in med school in 2004.

-Ronin
Click to expand...
You're smart to keep an open mind. Just be sure to enjoy the trip, whichever path you choose!
 
Hey Ronin,
I can understand what you're going through. I have had much of the same problem deciding between med school and grad school. Personally, I know students doing it all. I had a cousin just finish med school, another one in dental school, and a friend in grad school. My personal views after all this is that even though I'm willing to work hard I'm not sure if I'm willing to go through what would be hell for me for 4-8 years, depending on the demands of residency and life is too short to give up that many years. If medicine is really what interests you or you aren't sure, you probably are better off at med. school. However, if you really are interested in treating eye problems I would seriously consider optometry because it is tough to get an opthamology residency and I believe you would hate it more if you were locked out of the field you love. But hey, if you're willing to work your butt off to get one then just do it. My opinion is that you should simply do what feels right in your gut because regardless of what the average person does or how much they work, etc. you can fit mold any career to fit you if you are so determined.
P.S. I think my dentist is pretty average as far as skill goes, a nice guy though.
 
Hey Ronin,

I definitely have to agree with Sanman and the others in this thread. I think you should do what your gut tells you to do. If you want to be an MD or OD, picture yourself 10, 20 years from now because that is what you're going to wake up everyday and do for the rest of your life. Think carefully so you won't have any regret after you'd made ur decision.

Here's what what I think. As far as money is concerned, you're NEVER going to be satisfy with what you make because it's within our human nature to want more than what we have. As far as respect is concerned, you earn your respect for HOW you do your job, not the name or title you're being called. And as far as I'm concerned, gaining respect or making a lot of money (for most people, that means having lots of patients) in this world is not the only purpose of living, there is a Greater purpose out there...

Well, that's just how I look at things. You may not agree with me, but then again you may. In any event, I'm sure you're very smart enough to make your own decision. Good luck!

- Faith
P.S. brace yourself in case I have an attacker coming ;)
 
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