things that bother me

[Tony.]

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things that really bother me:

1. why is it that when you're sitting around with your old high school friends, you tell them you're going to optometry school; AND THEY LAUGH AND CROSS THEIR EYES !! everyone does this!! 😕

i hate that!

2. Why is it that I have to always explain the difference between an optician, optometrist and an ophthalmologist TO MY PARENTS' FRIENDS? you would think that the baby boomers WOULD KNOW THE FREAKIN' DIFFERENCE by now!

uhh, i hate that too....

3. Also! why does everyone aks me about LASIK questions.... There are thousands of eye diseases and disorders etc. why does everyone talk about just one issue in optometry?

that really 👎

we really need to educate the public people......
I remember when i volunteered for Prevent Blindness, I screened a 40 y.o patient that NEVER HAD AN EYE EXAM......uhh! you never hear of 40 year olds that never went to....say....the dentist!!

(thank you for letting me vent) 😱

 

[acurael]

lol...i hear ya...except for the first one
two ppl have said whats an optometrist?....after i told them im going to optometry school....hahhahah where do these ppl live? mars

 

[Petec]

haha
I know how you feel, I get the "Will you be able to do Lasik?" and "is that an MD?" questions pretty frequently. I guess these are just a couple of downsides of the profession that we will all encounter along the way. Call it ignorance or what you will. But we in this forum all focus so much of our attention on this profession that we find these questions offensive. Personally, I've come to expect the general public to be somewhat un-informed of what it is an optometrist does.

 

[JG777]

you have to understand that the general public is being presented with what's hot right now - lasik. the fact that a large number of the population wears glasses and few have major eye disorders brings focus on vision correcting procedures. i'm sure if there was an eye disorder that was frequent in the population, the general public will also be highly informed about it.

in essence, health care is in fact patient education. therefore, as future optometrists, it is our role to educate the public about possible eye problems such as mac degen in addition to popular procedures such as lasik.

it gets frustrating when friends say: cool, you can hook me up with glasses and contacts. but at the same time, i look at it like this: while they are getting their hook up, i can use that window of opportunity to inform them of what other eye problems exist that they have a potential for acquiring and give them the necessary education to be aware of symptoms and preventive actions.

 

[HighlyFanatic]

continued awareness is important to the profession. We do have a responsibility in educating the public.

 

[yOyOYoo]

I get the "lasik" question all the time.

Everyone always says "i'll go to you for lasik surgery in 4 years"

then I have to explain to them the difference between an optometrist and an opthalmologist.

 

[basilisk312]

when i tell people i want to go to optometry school they all laugh and say" you don't need four years more of school to give an eye exam even i can do that"....what may look as simple to people are really more complicated than that. i'm not just talking about people who i went to high school or some people i'm in college with but other preffessionals too. i don't think optometry is something people are educated in because people gove more respect to doctors of medicine whereas i think they should get the same respect because they are specialists in different important aspect of everyone's life.

 

[samwY]

I've always given respect to Optometrists. Even at a young age I considered and saw them as doctors. I thought this was the same for most of the population.

 

[basilisk312]

i've always given respect to optometrists too, but there are many people who don't and say they are not "real doctors" which i don't beleive to be true at all. for me particlarly, i guess i've given the most respect to optometrists because that is who i saw as someone who could fix a health related problem considerably fast....for example, eyeglasses and contacts are available within two days after diagnosis. and to top that off optometrists are also the first to diagnose many diseases....and bc stats say 70% of americans see an optometrist every year.

 

[basilisk312]

at my college a few friends and myself are forming an optometry club and alot of people have asked me what it is. so i take it that we are educating the public of its existance and what it does.

 

[Tony.]

at my college a few friends and myself are forming an optometry club and alot of people have asked me what it is. so i take it that we are educating the public of its existance and what it does.

are you opening up a POPS chapter? ..pre optometry professional society?

if you are, let me know, i helped the organization at our school and i can pass on some ideas.
i think it really stinks that the general public is not aware as much as to what optometrists do. i have a feeling all this will change in the future.
and as far as people crossing their eyes when i tell them i'll be an optometrist, that just comes with the territory i guess....

 

[basilisk312]

yes i'm public relations for the club. its called the pre-optometry club and we are just forming it. i would love any ideas or suggestions. right now we only have 7 members and i am in a large university of 16000 undergrads. is pops a national club for interested optometry students?

 

[Simisn]

yes i'm public relations for the club. its called the pre-optometry club and we are just forming it. i would love any ideas or suggestions. right now we only have 7 members and i am in a large university of 16000 undergrads. is pops a national club for interested optometry students?

POPS isn't national, I know that they tried to do that a few years ago but it didn't work out. But from what I've seen so far all pre-optometry clubs are called POPS.
What our public relations chair does is send out emails every week announcing meetings, speakers, room location, and after the meetings he emails the minutes from the meetings.
During the summer we go to orientaion for new students, that's just one ways to get the word out about the organization.