To all students who want to know more...
I realize this is a long post but it is a very important one. It discusses a very serious issue that is not being addressed! It has to do with your future and why you are spending thousands of dollars pursuing a degree that may be worth a whole lot less unless you speak up.
I have been apart of several optometry forum communities for many years and in all that time, it is shocking how many proposals for new schools have come up in the last 1 1/2 years. I haven't been keeping an accurate count, but I would estimate maybe 25 states have brought up their proposals publicly.
We have too many schools now (19 including Canada and Puerto Rico) because there are too many optometrists now. Can you get a routine, comprehensive exam the same day in virtually any OD office around the country? Yes, most of the time. Can you do this with a dentist or a physician? No. Sometimes you can't even get an exam in one of these offices for months if you don't have a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
That only addresses part of the problem. Combine a half-filled schedule with problems getting on medical insurance panels and dependency on poor paying vision plans, can you see why optometrists are concerned?
You can argue that our scope of practice will continue to increase and that will offset the increasing numbers of optometrists. Personally, I think we are at a crossroads. What can we possible do now other than surgery??? We aren't trained to do more than simple eyelid procedures and injections and frankly these are not procedures that are going to make anyone any money (note that we are trained but in most states are we aren't licensed to do these procedures).
So it is clear we are graduating too many optometrists and thus we have too many schools.
Most of these new school proposals have withered on the vine, and some have dropped their proposals because the public outcry from optometrists taking action. Any committee exploring the idea that is worth anything should know there are too many optometrists and it wouldn't be worth building a school. There is a lot of misinformation out there about the current distribution of optometrists and average salaries. That's why you see so many articles saying optometry is such a great profession. The bottom line is that most ODs do not have full schedules! No, we aren't starving but we also aren't as rich as everyone thinks we are.
We all suspect there will not only be one school built in California but there will be more being built elsewhere because the motive is money and prestige. ANYONE can propose a new school. Those who have the capital and the backing can proceed.
So what does this translate into other than too many optometrists flooding the marketplace? It also means schools picking from less qualified applicants. It means entrance GPAs going down, it means people who are less likely to finish four years, it means more people who can't pass the national boards, and it means that it is possible that there could be grade inflation and dumbing down of tests to ensure that schools can maintain their existence. Let's all hope this does not happen. We have to maintain standards for many reasons not the least of which is how other professions grade us. If we take even one step backward it will mean no more advances in scope of practice--not that we can advance that much more but many states are not up to the high standards. It would be an easy excuse for the physicians to say to our state legislatures that our graduates are even less qualified than before so we don't deserve anything and it is possible that we could even
lose ground with anything they propose to counter our current level of practice.
It is absolutely critical that we maintain our level of excellence and continue to strive for ways to make our schools better--not worse! The public deserves better doctors right?
What can be done about this? It is a difficult question. Any committee that is hellbent on opening a new school probably won't be convinced otherwise. There will definitely be more schools. There is no doubt about this. It's just a question of how many.
We know that the AOA is not going to help out. They normally scream "anti-trust" whenever any member asks them about our future. It's a long story why they do this but let's just say the AOA was sued years ago in connection with a price fixing scheme with contact lens companies and now they use this as an excuse for just about everything. They feel that anything that has to do with either fixing prices or limiting competition (in this case limiting supply) is anti-trust. Not sure if they do this to preserve the profession or simply their own existence. May be a combination of the two but none the less, with them being practically our sole, official spokespeople, and they have no say in the matter, our future is in jeopardy unless someone takes a stand.
I personally feel that this is not an anti-trust issue because professions like ours should not be subjected to the ups and downs of the marketplace. It would be insane to flood the marketplace with twice as many optometrists thinking that it will correct itself. Let's see, either wait until many of these ODs quit the profession for lack of employment, poor salary, or interest after being stuck at a commercial place for a decade, or 30 years until they retire because they don't want to work at McDonalds??? How is anyone going to pay off their massive school loans that I keep hearing about??? That is not taking care of our own people!
Think about what can happen if the flood gates were opened. It is a very real possibility. Anything we do now can affect us 10, 20, or even 30 years from now. We have to act! Schools are not going to close overnight and optometrists are not going to quit overnight. So it takes careful planning and as I say, nothing is being done about this!
HOWEVER... Speaking out is one way to curb the tide... Make a copy of my post and encourage others at your school to discuss this. Bring it up in class.
Email me if you want to know more on how you can get involved in keeping your profession alive and well. Please get involved. You can help.
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P.S. You may feel that I'm revealing too much information about the ills of our profession and especially our association and our opponents can run this this. Yes, this is a public website and anyone can read what I just said. I feel that our opponents already know the issues because many of them are behind the new school proposals. I feel that this has to be brought out in the open for everyone to read so we can get young ODs such as yourselves more involved in what happens to our futures. What is happening and what will happen will affect all of us--especially YOU who are going to be holding the torch. Act now.
