Optometry forum lacks decorum

Most forums on the internet are the same way in that it's a lot of rambling of over opinionated people. The optometry forum here is no different in that respect, but I think the reason we don't see a lot of good discussion is due to the fact that optometry is such a small profession, there just aren't many optometrists, students, etc. to speak up. There's what, probably around 70,000 medical students in the US and around 4,000 optometry students?

 

Absolutely, 100% correct. The whining, bickering, and tired rhetoric of a few select posters have made this forum almost unbearable. How sad that this forum is how other health professions will view us... a profession with a MAJOR inferiority complex. When I joined in 2005... this was a fantastic place to get information, share stories, get to know other students, etc. Now... *sigh*.

 

I agree.

I propose we start a "hate" thread that we pin to the top of the forum where everyone is free to spew whatever venom they like, rather than have the poison seep into every thread.







(that's my $0.02 positive contribution to this thread.)

 

but then there would be no new threads.

 

Bravo.

 

good one!


Again I have to agree with qwopty99----that thread was posted to the top of the Optho forum and is a direct insult to optometry (a.k.a. our forum). SDN could give a "rat's a s s about us when compared to their "crown jewel"-----> Medical Forum. Every time Indiana OD was winning an argument the moderator closes the thread down. They troll the living hell out of our forum and very little action is taken versus OD forum participants being infracted, suspended, etc......

You could call the Ophthalmology forum now The "Ophthalmology is superior to Optometry Forum.-----that is what it seem like......

 

I don't know how to break this to you, but most physicians could care less about Optometry. Please don't take that the wrong way, it really is a very small field. We prefer to battle NP's and midlevels which are much greater in number

 

I'd just like to make clear that my post was not intended in any way to refer to the stickied thread at the top of the ophtho forum.

 

MD's believe that Ophthalmology is superior to Optometry because ophthalmology itself is a harder word to pronounce compared to the word Optometry. Its also harder to spell.

 

I have to put myself in their shoes. The Ophtho residency is one of the most competitive specialties to match into...many of the MDs realize that they simply couldn't get the boards scores for that. On the other hand, they do know that they could probably have gotten into optometry school if they chose to apply (the same way that many of us know that we could have gotten into med school with our GPAs/test-taking abilities).

They also get no exposure to ODs in school. Half of my med school friends need refreshers on whether or not my program is 3 or 4 years. We gain a little bit of respect when we have some of the same professors come in (our pharmacology courses were virtually identical), but that's about it. It's easy to miss the fact that we spend a lot more time on refraction/visual assessment/primary care stuff. I'd also consider the fact that primary care MDs are not usually the top of their class...and even though that's an unfair comparison, that has to factor in at least subconsciously.

I know ODs are better than OMDs for the vast majority of a normal patient's eyecare needs, otherwise we simply would never have evolved as a profession—but to a casual observer—it's easy to attribute the highest academic prowess with the best quality of care. Would you rather be seen by an MD or a DO all other things being equal? [What are the odds of someone on this board tackling that extremely loaded and unfair hypothetical question in a subsequent post, anybody?]