observed optometrist

[vasquez32]

Today is my day off from teaching 7th grade math students. I decided to go and observe a wal-mart optometrist. It was interesting. He was very positive about the profession. He was excited in showing me some equipment. He informed an elder man that he had a little bit of cataracts. The elder man agreed to come back in 11 months. We saw other patients, he was very busy. The optometrist, UH graduate, was very professional and really knew his stuff. I asked how many patients he sees per week. He says that it depends, at the beginning it was kinda slow but it is picking up.(45 patients per week).

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[r_salis]

Very cool! How did you arrange to observe with him? Is he a friend or acquaintance, or did you just walk in blind and introduce yourself as a prospective student?

 

[vasquez32]

I had already spoken to him once and had introduced myself and my goals. But I hadn't had the chance to observe him. Yesterday was my lucky day.

 

[mpp]

When I was considering optmetry I had no trouble visiting with optometrists and shadowing just be blind-calling them. Everyone was interested in helping me out learning about they're profession and I got to see several different types of shops:

Big clinic with more than a dozen M.D.'s and O.D.'s
Retail doc
One-man operation (his wife was the receptionist) with no dispensary
Small private practice (two docs) with a small dispensary
Military optometrist at a military hospital

It was great to see different sides of the profession and everyone had good advice and helped me out with connections for visiting with other doctors and letters of recommendation. The schools at which I interviewed seemed impressed that I had visited with so many different types of optometrists.