What Is It Like Being an Optometrist

[Reverend Mayhem]

I went to see my optometrist today. After i got over my slight annoyance with the new contacts that he prescribed me, they felt like putting fire directly in my eyes anytime i tried them, i realized that the guy actually has a pretty sweet job.

He gets to work from 11:00am to 6:00pm 5 days a week. His exam room has dim, golden light (seems like a perfect place to take a quick nap). And most days are just spent handing out glasses. No life or death issues, no late nights, no frightened patients. It seems like a great gig to me.

So i guess what i want to know is, is optometry a pretty sweet job? It seems laid back and low stress to me. How bad could it be?




And just keep in mind, i am not saying it is an easy job or easy to earn an OD, just that the job it self doesn't seem like it would be horribly stressful like many other health care professions.

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[optojake]

it really is a great profession. it has its problems like every other health care profession does, but we also have some of the cheapest malpractice rates, aren't hated by most of our patients, respected by most of our patients, can directly and oftentimes immediately impact our patient's lives for the good, can earn a nice living (not saying filthy rich, though there are some of those too). its a great profession for someone looking to own their own business and have a family one day too.

 

[fjpod]

I went to see my optometrist today. After i got over my slight annoyance with the new contacts that he prescribed me, they felt like putting fire directly in my eyes anytime i tried them, i realized that the guy actually has a pretty sweet job.

He gets to work from 11:00am to 6:00pm 5 days a week. His exam room has dim, golden light (seems like a perfect place to take a quick nap). And most days are just spent handing out glasses. No life or death issues, no late nights, no frightened patients. It seems like a great gig to me.

So i guess what i want to know is, is optometry a pretty sweet job? It seems laid back and low stress to me. How bad could it be?

And just keep in mind, i am not saying it is an easy job or easy to earn an OD, just that the job it self doesn't seem like it would be horribly stressful like many other health care professions.

Seems like you already know what it's like. Why ask? Shhh...nobody tell him about what we really do in the dark.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Seems like you already know what it's like. Why ask?

Well i thought perhaps there was some sort of stressful element to optometry, a dark side to the field, if you will.

Maybe if you prescribe the wrong glasses to a patient, their eyes will bleed? Are eye exams far deadlier than we might think? Or perhaps you will get threatening visits from contact manufactures for not moving enough product? Maybe they strap you to your exam chain and water board you with saline solution? I was just wondering if there was a part of optometry that most people don't see or understand? One involving savage beatings and murder?

Is it really so unreasonable to ask these questions?

 

[YokYee]

Unfortunately most people out there do think optometrists have a cush job where all we do is hand out glasses. I'm sure you're a young healthy person so you don't see the value in your eye exam or your doctor is not doing a good enough job educating you.

Throughout my years at school, I've performed many exams on diabetics who do not care if their diabetes is under control. However, once they are dilated, I see the consequences of that. For instance, I had a 20-something patient come into my chair complaining of blurry vision and seeing everything pink or red. Her vision was actually 20/1000 in that eye. After dilation, she had the biggest hemorrhage I have ever seen due to neovascularization of her blood vessels. Other examples: my teacher saw a patient who was complaining of vision going in and out. The medical doctor said nothing was wrong and just needed new glasses. After dilation, you could see little blobs of cholesterol blocking the blood vessels causing the ischemic attack.

Yes, most of the time it is very nice when you have normal, healthy patients, but there are scary moments when the patients come in and it's a life and/or sight threatening situation.

 

[fjpod]

Well i thought perhaps there was some sort of stressful element to optometry, a dark side to the field, if you will.

Maybe if you prescribe the wrong glasses to a patient, their eyes will bleed? Are eye exams far deadlier than we might think? Or perhaps you will get threatening visits from contact manufactures for not moving enough product? Maybe they strap you to your exam chain and water board you with saline solution? I was just wondering if there was a part of optometry that most people don't see or understand? One involving savage beatings and murder?

Is it really so unreasonable to ask these questions?

It is good to ask questions, but when you ask "will the eyes bleed", or "does it involve savage beatings or murder", you are being disingenuous.

ODs are about as likely to get threats from CL reps as MDs are to get them from drug reps.

You either need to educate yourself or get a new sense of humor...or maybe both.

 

[sunyopt]

It is as easy as it seems if you have a good education. Of course an unhealthy patient may have problems but that makes you think on your toes and breaks the monotony. The worst thing about optometry is a bad assistant or working with others that don't and can't understand how subtle things can be very important. The only other down side is you have to refer out most serious problems which can be a blow to your ego at times. Be certain optometry is what you want to do because it is all you can do with an OD degree unlike MD or DO. Even DDS can expand to facial surgery but optometry is optometry. I love it but be sure you will before you join the club. Good luck.

 

[Eye Understand]

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[gambit78]

I guess not much activity here because of the fewer issues. Whenever I see optometry hours, I'm like wow, no night shifts, various shifts, etc. My family friend took a two years from optometry to have a baby, and I felt her transition back to work was seamless. You could NEVER say that for other health professions where things change quickly.

I would say one minus is the market, where there's only one optometrist per Wal-mart, Sams Club, Sears, etc.