Why did you pick Optometry? (current OD students)

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Oculomotor

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I pose this question to all the OD students on here-----Why did you pick optometry? We have a lot of negative and heated debates on here and I just wanted to see why people chose to pursue becoming a doctor of optometry:D


for me it is simple.

4 yrs of optometry school will yield for me:

1) a professional doctorate degree (doctor of optometry)

2) I will be a primary eye doctor and be able to help people and provide a valuable service to society

3) A comfortable income

4) I love the visual system (favorite system)

5) I want to be finished with a total "under" 10 yrs....lol
4 yrs of undergrad + 4 yrs of OD school + 1 yr optometric residency

because I am not in my 20's lol.....

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5) I want to be finished with a total "under" 10 yrs....lol
4 yrs of undergrad + 4 yrs of OD school + 1 yr optometric residency

because I am not in my 20's lol.....[/quote]


so OD is a total of 5 years once in the OD school? I thought you do your residency your last year of OD school? Pharmacy and Physical therapy are both phd degrees as well, but the fourth year is their residency, then your done, there is not a addional year for residency.
 
so OD is a total of 5 years once in the OD school? I thought you do your residency your last year of OD school? Pharmacy and Physical therapy are both phd degrees as well, but the fourth year is their residency, then your done, there is not a addional year for residency.

A residency is not required to be an OD. After you graduate you can certainly do a residency, and it is one year. Fourth year is externships.
 
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I chose optometry because of a combination of the following:

1. Personal experience with amblyopia and vision therapy.
2. Suitable income for a comfortable life while having the opportunity to start and support a family while spending lots of time with them outside of work.
3. General interest in working with people and using my talents to increase their quality of life.

I also honestly believe that with the right leaders, optometry has a very bright future and will do nothing but grow over the coming years.
 
I chose optometry because of a combination of the following:

1. Personal experience with amblyopia and vision therapy.
2. Suitable income for a comfortable life while having the opportunity to start and support a family while spending lots of time with them outside of work.
3. General interest in working with people and using my talents to increase their quality of life.

I also honestly believe that with the right leaders, optometry has a very bright future and will do nothing but grow over the coming years.


How do we get the right leaders? The current ones aren't looking too promising?
 
How do we get the right leaders? The current ones aren't looking too promising?

What do you base that on??

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm interested in knowing why you have that feeling?

IndianaOD, by saying that, I was referring to many people in the field today taking optometry in the right direction. KHE, I have that feeling because I am surrounded by many of them at my school and I was implying their influence on the profession that I see on a daily basis.

For example, the changes in our curriculum (starting this year) has made a statement to the optometric community here. The school is now placing emphasis on disease and medical-related courses and training. I believe this will be much more valuable for the future of optometry versus placing the most emphasis on optics and perception courses. All informed optometry faithfuls should know that the success of optometry depends on the future with respect to scope of practice.

If we want to be able to treat more diseases and gain legislation for various pharmaceuticals, we need to be trained now. We need to learn early in our careers.

There are many people who are trying to bring these changes and with their leadership, optometry will continue to grow into one of the most important professions in society.
 
For example, the changes in our curriculum (starting this year) has made a statement to the optometric community here. The school is now placing emphasis on disease and medical-related courses and training. I believe this will be much more valuable for the future of optometry versus placing the most emphasis on optics and perception courses. All informed optometry faithfuls should know that the success of optometry depends on the future with respect to scope of practice.

See, I strongly disagree with that. I can understand why you might feel that way given that you're still in school, and I'm sure the school has got you all revved up but a few points here:

1) Scope of practice makes not a lick of difference in the long term success of optometry. I have gone over that dozens of times. You can be trained up the wazoo and have the widest scope of practice possible, but if you can't get paid for it, it is of absolutely zero value to the profession. "All informed optometry faithfuls" should know that the success of optometry has almost nothing to do with scope of practice.

2) I also don't agree that putting heavy value on disease and medical related courses is good for the long term viability of the profession. Am I saying that ODs shouldn't be prescribing pataday, or managing glaucoma? No....of course not. But it's time for a reality check. Doing more and more disease management sounds fun and sexy and "doctorly" but the reality of it is is that you're talking about essentially duplicating services with ophthalmology. Considering that there is no access problem with respect to ophthalmological care, it makes little sense for ODs to move aggressively into this area, not because we "can't" or would be incompetent at it, but because it makes no economic sense to do so. The future success of optometry is not linked to us being more "like them."

3) Also understand that once you get outside of your academid cocoon, 90% of your patients are going to seek your advise for vision and refractive care, not for disease management. I own a private practice that is about as "medical" as an optometric practice can get and I would say that it's about 10-15% of my patients who present for "medical management" of some sort. Their entering complaint is almost universally vision or refractive in nature.

If we want to be able to treat more diseases and gain legislation for various pharmaceuticals, we need to be trained now. We need to learn early in our careers.

Again, this is an unwise move. More disease management simply makes us more "like them" and no matter what happens, optometry is always going to be regarded as 2nd class citizens in that arena. There is little that can be done about that so what we should be doing is accentuating our strengths.

There are many people who are trying to bring these changes and with their leadership, optometry will continue to grow into one of the most important professions in society.

Sadly, most of those people are ivory tower academics or people who work in tertiary referal centers. The majority of them have no clue that goes on in 95% of optometry out "on the street." Most of them have never had to make a payroll, or deal with lab vendors. Most of them have never had to hire or fire staff. Most of them have never had to chase down denied insurance claims. Most of them have never had to get an office off the ground, and keep it off the ground. As such, they essentially don't know schitt from shine-ola about what the profession needs to keep it viable.

And please don't take this as a personal attack. I understand where you're coming from and believe me, I've been there too. But the reality of it all will hit you soon enough. Hopefully not too hard. ;)
 
I agree 100% with KHE. I actually wrote something similar on a little survey thing the school had us fill out when we graduated.
 
See, I strongly disagree with that. I can understand why you might feel that way given that you're still in school, and I'm sure the school has got you all revved up but a few points here:

1) Scope of practice makes not a lick of difference in the long term success of optometry. I have gone over that dozens of times. You can be trained up the wazoo and have the widest scope of practice possible, but if you can't get paid for it, it is of absolutely zero value to the profession. "All informed optometry faithfuls" should know that the success of optometry has almost nothing to do with scope of practice.

2) I also don't agree that putting heavy value on disease and medical related courses is good for the long term viability of the profession. Am I saying that ODs shouldn't be prescribing pataday, or managing glaucoma? No....of course not. But it's time for a reality check. Doing more and more disease management sounds fun and sexy and "doctorly" but the reality of it is is that you're talking about essentially duplicating services with ophthalmology. Considering that there is no access problem with respect to ophthalmological care, it makes little sense for ODs to move aggressively into this area, not because we "can't" or would be incompetent at it, but because it makes no economic sense to do so. The future success of optometry is not linked to us being more "like them."

3) Also understand that once you get outside of your academid cocoon, 90% of your patients are going to seek your advise for vision and refractive care, not for disease management. I own a private practice that is about as "medical" as an optometric practice can get and I would say that it's about 10-15% of my patients who present for "medical management" of some sort. Their entering complaint is almost universally vision or refractive in nature.



Again, this is an unwise move. More disease management simply makes us more "like them" and no matter what happens, optometry is always going to be regarded as 2nd class citizens in that arena. There is little that can be done about that so what we should be doing is accentuating our strengths.



Sadly, most of those people are ivory tower academics or people who work in tertiary referal centers. The majority of them have no clue that goes on in 95% of optometry out "on the street." Most of them have never had to make a payroll, or deal with lab vendors. Most of them have never had to hire or fire staff. Most of them have never had to chase down denied insurance claims. Most of them have never had to get an office off the ground, and keep it off the ground. As such, they essentially don't know schitt from shine-ola about what the profession needs to keep it viable.

And please don't take this as a personal attack. I understand where you're coming from and believe me, I've been there too. But the reality of it all will hit you soon enough. Hopefully not too hard. ;)

I guess I will add my perspective to this thread.

While I am not advocating competing with Ophthalmology, I am a strong believer in keeping and concentrating on "our" scope of practice. Our leaders may know more than we give them credit. Insurance companies are running the show. Our leaders could be trying to appease them and keep us in the game at the same time. Tough balance.

Many students do not understand the hoops that insurance companies make us jump through. Let me give you an example.

75 year old glaucoma patient on Xalatan. Med works well, controls IOP and central and peripheral vision is stable for a period of three years. Medicare D plan makes Xalatan a third tier med (which means the patient has to pay full price or a greater copay). Patient upset with extra cost, doctor upset because med works, insurance company clueless. The med must be changed, a new trial must be done with new med.....all this leads to increase in medical management. Bottom line - a waste of time and an increase in the strain on medical care.

This is what many private practice doctors deal with daily.

Now let me give you another thing to think about. If Optometrists were only on vision plans, the above example would not even need to be discussed on this board. 60 to 70 percent (rough figures) of practicing Optometrists don't deal with this, mainly because they only use vision plans. Sounds like less of a headache, doesn't it? My belief is that it leads to apathy.

I became an Optometrist to take care of patient's visual needs. That is the standard quote given by many Optometrists. Do we live it? I try. I have a busy private practice that is as medical as one can become. As KHE said in his post, most entering complaints are visual and refractive related. I appreciate this, but many of the underlying causes are medically related. If I was not trained in pathology and medical management, I would punt more than an 0 and 12 football team. I feel that I am resposible for the total care of my patient's eyes. Many conditions I can manage, some I can't. My training has given me the ability to make these decisions.

I am not a salesman. Optometry's roots come from spectacle peddlers. I respect that, but I did not go through Optometry school to peddle specs. I have Opticians who do that. I am probably missing the boat on this subject, but I feel that my practice is exactly the way I want it.

The vision plan problem will not go away. It is only going to get worse. This will ultimately lead to lower global reimbursement, poor patient care and Optometrists becoming welfare citizens. We must insulate ourselves from this evil.

Bottom line - get rid of vision plans, practice full scope Optometry, get paid what you are worth and live a happy life.

Give our leaders some credit. These are voluntary positions. They are fighting for us collectively, even though they are not fighting for you individually.

Good luck,

Dr. Gump

PS No, I am not running for a position, and NEVER will. I just appreciate their voice. They allow me to practice the way I like.
 
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Bottom line - get rid of vision plans, practice full scope Optometry, get paid what you are worth and live a happy life.

That isn't as easy as it sounds if you live in a state where vision plans and medical insurance team up and require you to take the crappy vision to bill medical. Even if you play by these rules the medical reimbursement is still lower than what it was before this "collusion".
 
That isn't as easy as it sounds if you live in a state where vision plans and medical insurance team up and require you to take the crappy vision to bill medical. Even if you play by these rules the medical reimbursement is still lower than what it was before this "collusion".

Yes, this is one of the big problems we have. I don't have the answers. We need to find some or it will only get worse.

Until then, all we can do is take care of the patients as well as we can.

Dr. Gump
 
Actually KHE many of our "academics" at NOVA were in private practice for some time and some still run practices right now......You can't make a "blanket" assumption about OD academics like you did.......

I just have to say though that most of the OD's I know back home are happy and enjoy what they do....I think this website is overly negative and I would not recommend it to pre-optometry students that I council. It is like a circus:laugh:

I agree with Habitual RX but I also agree with several of KHE's points about the insurance problems......


on a side note I am getting a Keeler BIO wireless (the cheaper one--all pupil II) ---pretty cool! and nice optics


we now have President Barak Obama!
 
Actually KHE many of our "academics" at NOVA were in private practice for some time and some still run practices right now......You can't make a "blanket" assumption about OD academics like you did.......

I just have to say though that most of the OD's I know back home are happy and enjoy what they do....I think this website is overly negative and I would not recommend it to pre-optometry students that I council. It is like a circus:laugh:

I agree with Habitual RX but I also agree with several of KHE's points about the insurance problems......


on a side note I am getting a Keeler BIO wireless (the cheaper one--all pupil II) ---pretty cool! and nice optics


we now have President Barak Obama!


I would highly recommend this to pre opts. They need to know that optometry is a tough career choice. The AOA and schools perpetrate a huge lie about the profession.
 
I would highly recommend this to pre opts. They need to know that optometry is a tough career choice. The AOA and schools perpetrate a huge lie about the profession.
Can you give me a list of reasons that optometry school is a tough career choice? Not being sassy just think it will be helpful for me to know
 
I would highly recommend this to pre opts. They need to know that optometry is a tough career choice. The AOA and schools perpetrate a huge lie about the profession.

I agree with KHE on the above comments. Also i agree that both sides of a coin must be shown to be a fair evaluation.

I love being an Optometrist but do not enjoy some of the BS that is associated with it. Vision Plans, Medical plans in some states excluding us from pay. Some patients respect you, but some will not. Some will laugh at the date of their last appointment (some 1996). They do not follow your rules for contact lens, and if you refuse them contacts, they'll just find another doctor. Unfortunately if you refused them contacts I expect most doctors would lose 40% of their patient base. There are just too many OD's. Now Board Certification is looking like a reality, which is another aspect that i think is a waste of time and money.

Positives: I wish I could just see kids all day long. I have found that I rarely like working with people over 60 years of age. Maybe that's just my attitude after becoming a new dad.

2) You can be your own boss, and set your own hours. 3) We are still a component of the economy that is a necessity (at least at some point) for people to come visit us. 4) Our profession can not be outsourced to third world countries. 5) A steady income to feed a family. 6) We are hardly ever sued, and have low mal-practice rates. I have only had maybe three people mad at me before and all were because of expired spectacle Rx's. 7) You can impact people lives through the gift of sight.
 
I would highly recommend this to pre opts. They need to know that optometry is a tough career choice. The AOA and schools perpetrate a huge lie about the profession.

Yeah they do.

Recently UIC advertised that the starting salary for OD's was 150k. The AOA gave them that figure.
 
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