Are schools pumping out TOO MANY OD's?

[cpw]

Here was a question raised by abs1 on another thread.. so I thought I"d move it to its own topic.

personally.. I would think there are too many OD's.. but I think the MAIN problem is all the OD's all want to live in the SAME cities. We can't all live in the Bay Area, New York, LA, or Chicago. There are still MANY rural areas screaming for doctors and they can't get any. I see posting on the optcom list all the time for small towns willing to pay OD's big money to move to their town. (and a lot of commercial places like Target looking to start up new stores)

There are private schools like ICO that pump out almost 200 OD's a year. And you have to start wondering whether they truly have the interest of the profession or their wallets in mind.

Granted, they do have to cover the states that don't have optometry schools. But, it would be interesting to see how many graduates the seventeen schools put out every year vs. the number of OD jobs available every year. I don't think I"ve ever seen this analyzed anywhere.

What are y'alls thoughts????

 

[abs1]

To answer my own question, I dont know?

I do know that the schools are pumping out students at a rapid pace that many are saying is absurd. And I know that the schools say that they are preparing the country for the eventual aging of the baby-boomers.

I totally agree with you that it depends on the area for sure. Starting a practice or finding a job in a place like Chicago would be awfully tough.

Id be interested to hear what others think.

 

[Jubileee]

I hear this comment a lot from people on various forums...

The funny thing is, according to a recent industry magazine, the AAOC is worried that not enough people are interested in opt as a career. They are wanting to step up the marketing of what it is that ODs are trained for and what options are out there. They cite the trend of recent years in the dwindling numbers of opt applications. They are fearful that the number of apps will decline to so far that it will hurt the selection process...therefore weaking the career as a whole...

I haven't heard anything further on this, other than they were working in conjuction with the AOA...

Cassandra

 

[drbizzaro]

There are private schools like ICO that pump out almost 200 OD's a year. And you have to start wondering whether they truly have the interest of the profession or their wallets in mind.

i know that many from ICO end up going back to their original location - so i dont see that being a problem at all... in fact, that happens at NEWENCO, PCO, etc....

"pumping out" seems like a bad term...

 

[RLK]

Don't worry about me. If I can get in this year I won't even think of ever working in the Bay Area, New York, LA, or Chicago. I'll be happy to stay in western Pennsylvania where I live now.

 

[Kristene9]

With schools taking 150-200 students a year, I would be more concerted about the quality of ODs that are coming out of those schools. I don’t have any reason to think that these new OD's aren't wonderful doctors, but with such large class size the real problem is trying to fill seats with a small applicant pool. There aren't THAT many people who want to become ODs. If these schools are "pumping out" OD's that aren't qualified its going to hurt the profession.

Do yall see that as a problem?

 

[drbizzaro]

With schools taking 150-200 students a year, I would be more concerted about the quality of ODs that are coming out of those schools. I don’t have any reason to think that these new OD's aren't wonderful doctors, but with such large class size the real problem is trying to fill seats with a small applicant pool. There aren't THAT many people who want to become ODs. If these schools are "pumping out" OD's that aren't qualified its going to hurt the profession.

Do yall see that as a problem?

i dont see it as a problem at all... the people who can't handle the course load, will end up failing and repeating (making class sizes decrease from 150-> approximately 140 or 135)

also, people that dont know what they are doing will not succeed in passing NBEO

 

[rpie]

I think there is a Doctor glut in all areas of health care. The concern of an over abundance of OD’s was big concern post WWII , because many new schools of optometry were opening. When NICO began the process of merging with Monroe college of Optometry, they began graduating 2 OD classes a year. I believe this went on for 2-3 years before the newly combined school became ICO, and a single class size of 150 was finalized. Between 1949-1957 there was an explosion of OD’s graduating. Most of these OD’s by now should be retired, deceased or if on the younger side be in their mid to late 70’s and semi retired …maybe .

What I find interesting is, towards the latter half of the Vietnam War around 1969-74, OD schools enjoyed such large applicant pools that many applicants that did not get into OD school, went on to medical and law school instead. The people that graduated in the late 1960-70’s would have replaced the Post WWII OD’s, and now since the 1960-70’s OD would be in their mid 60’s, there should be less practicing OD’s with in the next 5-7 years.

 

[drbizzaro]

I think there is a Doctor glut in all areas of health care. The concern of an over abundance of OD’s was big concern post WWII , because many new schools of optometry were opening. When NICO began the process of merging with Monroe college of Optometry, they began graduating 2 OD classes a year. I believe this went on for 2-3 years before the newly combined school became ICO, and a single class size of 150 was finalized. Between 1949-1957 there was an explosion of OD’s graduating. Most of these OD’s by now should be retired, deceased or if on the younger side be in their mid to late 70’s and semi retired …maybe .

What I find interesting is, towards the latter half of the Vietnam War around 1969-74, OD schools enjoyed such large applicant pools that many applicants that did not get into OD school, went on to medical and law school instead. The people that graduated in the late 1960-70’s would have replaced the Post WWII OD’s, and now since the 1960-70’s OD would be in their mid 60’s, there should be less practicing OD’s with in the next 5-7 years.

i'm sure there will never be an over abundance of OD's.... many schools in the US accept foreign students... and this can make up to 20% of the class at times... with many of them returning home, this decreases the number of doctors coming out into the US... i think even with a little more than 200 students/year per school, it would still be fine, since there are always a number of people who end up dropping out, and others who find out that it's not the profession they thought it would be...

 

[ddown]

Are there too many ODs to find a job? No. Are there too many ODs to find a good job, or the job you'd hoped for? Probably.

 

[cpw]

it's funny to go back and read something I wrote FOUR YEARS AGO !!

For the record.. ZERO problem finding a job where I am. In fact.. I was turning down places because I had five offers. But, I have friends in my class who "had" to stay in Houston and some of them are still looking or can only find relief work. It all depends on what you're willing to do to get a great offer.

 

[jefguth]

Hey CPW,

Would you mind sharing some of the details about the type of opportunities you were entertaining and ultimately chose?

 

[reconsider]

Are you a student or practicing doctor? Your responses on this thread sound like an idiot who is totally detached from reality. Have you ever been to an optometric CE meeting? Do you read? Do you communicate with other members of the profession?

i'm sure there will never be an over abundance of OD's.... many schools in the US accept foreign students... and this can make up to 20% of the class at times... with many of them returning home, this decreases the number of doctors coming out into the US... i think even with a little more than 200 students/year per school, it would still be fine, since there are always a number of people who end up dropping out, and others who find out that it's not the profession they thought it would be...

 

[reconsider]

"there should be less practicing OD’s with in the next 5-7 years"

You are dreaming.

I think there is a Doctor glut in all areas of health care. The concern of an over abundance of OD’s was big concern post WWII , because many new schools of optometry were opening. When NICO began the process of merging with Monroe college of Optometry, they began graduating 2 OD classes a year. I believe this went on for 2-3 years before the newly combined school became ICO, and a single class size of 150 was finalized. Between 1949-1957 there was an explosion of OD’s graduating. Most of these OD’s by now should be retired, deceased or if on the younger side be in their mid to late 70’s and semi retired …maybe .

What I find interesting is, towards the latter half of the Vietnam War around 1969-74, OD schools enjoyed such large applicant pools that many applicants that did not get into OD school, went on to medical and law school instead. The people that graduated in the late 1960-70’s would have replaced the Post WWII OD’s, and now since the 1960-70’s OD would be in their mid 60’s, there should be less practicing OD’s with in the next 5-7 years.