What made you choose optometry?

[PA_dud3]

Hi all,

I hope you all are well. So I recently started working at a rural-ish Private Optometry Practice as a Tech and while I enjoy the work it can be quite stressful at times due to the volume of patients we receive and what I need to to do for each patient. The Optometrists have really taken me under their wing so-to-speak because I'm the only one in the practice who is looking Optometry school. I am starting to have a few doubts, however.

So I will be completely honest, I started out Pre-Pharmacy>Pre-Medicine>Pre-AA>Pre-Optometry. I've seen just about everything that I think is necessary to make an informed decision but I can't shake the feeling I would be wasting my time. The money for optometry is very nice and is more than enough to pursue the kind of lifestyle I hope to achieve. I also like the prestige of being the first line of defense for people's eyesight, even though many people say that Optometry isn't a very prestigious field. However I just can't help but feel like I'm only doing Optometry because I am not good enough to go MD/DO. I also worry that I won't be able to do any real medical management of patient's eye health with optometry because everything gets referred to Ophthalmology. I don't mind doing refractions and stuff ( I actually like the equipment and think optics are very interesting) but I am worried I would get burnt out doing the same thing over and over again with no variety. Would an Ocular Disease residency help with this?

So I said all that to say all this: if you could go back and do it all over again, would you still choose optometry? Would you recommend optometry to someone like me?

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[Loptometriste]

Hi all,

I hope you all are well. So I recently started working at a rural-ish Private Optometry Practice as a Tech and while I enjoy the work it can be quite stressful at times due to the volume of patients we receive and what I need to to do for each patient. The Optometrists have really taken me under their wing so-to-speak because I'm the only one in the practice who is looking Optometry school. I am starting to have a few doubts, however.

So I will be completely honest, I started out Pre-Pharmacy>Pre-Medicine>Pre-AA>Pre-Optometry. I've seen just about everything that I think is necessary to make an informed decision but I can't shake the feeling I would be wasting my time. The money for optometry is very nice and is more than enough to pursue the kind of lifestyle I hope to achieve. I also like the prestige of being the first line of defense for people's eyesight, even though many people say that Optometry isn't a very prestigious field. However I just can't help but feel like I'm only doing Optometry because I am not good enough to go MD/DO. I also worry that I won't be able to do any real medical management of patient's eye health with optometry because everything gets referred to Ophthalmology. I don't mind doing refractions and stuff ( I actually like the equipment and think optics are very interesting) but I am worried I would get burnt out doing the same thing over and over again with no variety. Would an Ocular Disease residency help with this?

So I said all that to say all this: if you could go back and do it all over again, would you still choose optometry? Would you recommend optometry to someone like me?

I enjoy optometry, and I would do it again.