OD or PA

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

JAB1215

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2016
Messages
73
Reaction score
18
Hi everyone. I just completed my sophomore year of college and am heavily considering a career in optometry. I have done some shadowing this summer and have really enjoyed it. However, the very first day I shadowed I had some mixed feelings and came home confused, and started researching PA. I did enjoy the remainder of my shadowing experiences, but still have PA on my mind.

What has always attracted me to optometry is the fact that patients generally are happy to see you, which makes for a less depressing job. However, I am worried that it may become boring after a while, whereas PA may not. I also like the fact that optometrists, compared to PAs, are more autonomous doctors, whereas PAs must work under a doctor.

I shadowed optometrists in glaucoma, retina, cataract, and dry eye clinics, which I loved. Therefore, I was thinking of eventually doing a residency in ocular disease if I go the optometry route. I was wondering how an optometrist's job might change if he/she has done a residency in ocular disease? In other words, do these optometrists work more often in hospitals, rather than setting up their own private practices? There is also a lot of talk online of optometry, as a career, diminishing, and being taken over by the commercial sector (lens crafters, etc.), so I was wondering if that wouldn't really apply to those optometrists whose careers center more around ocular disease?

I was wondering if anyone was in the same boat, in regards to OD/ PA commitment issues, or if any OD or PA students or doctors have some insight as to these careers? Thanks!

Members don't see this ad.
 
This is probably the wrong forum.

I'm an optometrist. I work in a hospital. I think my job is fulfilling and challenging enough to be fun/interesting despite practicing for 4 years. I still love what I do. I didn't like my first two jobs working in the commercial sector because I hate the non-doctor staff there and I hated the patient clientele (lower income people who tended to be weird and have socioeconomic problems they'd drag into my office like substance abuse, poor hygiene, bad attitudes).

Doing a residency just gives you more exposure and confidence in treating more advanced cases that an optometrist can see in their scope of practice. They tend to work in private sector or ophthalmology groups because obviously they're interested in doing more specialty work if they'd delay entering the workforce for another year to get extra training.

I'd say the more lucrative residency in optometry to have would be in vision therapy or specialty contact lens fitting as you can carve a niche and do services many others don't provide. Ocular disease residencies will make you more attractive to work in an OMD group or help you manage with more confidence your own glaucoma clinic (and thus bill for medical codes). Low vision is a subspecialty that doesn't really generate a lot of money but it provides a much needed service and accomplishment to help the visually impaired live as normal a life as they can.

Like I said, I have a hospital job but I'm not residency-trained. I'm lucky as a new grad to even be here, and I consider it a large part in luck, having good references and connections, and being at the right place at the right time to have my dream job in terms of compensation and working conditions, because on paper, compared to applicants who are residency-trained, I'd probably have been glanced over in a heartbeat.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Members don't see this ad :)
if you really like eyes go the OD route. If I had to do life over I would go to medschool instead of PA. read some of my old posts if you want to know why. in short, lack of respect, autonomy, and scope of practice until I started working rural solo coverage jobs hours outside of major metro areas.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Top