Question
Hi Dr. Johnston. My name is Isabella Betkowski and I am 13 years old. I am doing a science career project in school and would like to ask you some questions.
Could you give me a description of the optometry career?
What education do you need to become an optometrist?
What is the starting salary you would expect to receive in this career field, the top salary and average annual salary?
What are three pros and cons about you job?
Could you explain the jobs demographics. What part of the country would you expect to find a job in this career field?
Thank you,
Isabella
Answer
Sure Isabella - that is a fun question
- Optometry career - Optometrists examine eyes for
1) refractive errors - the need for glasses and contact lenses - and prescribe these devices to correct refractive error
2) eye disease - Optometrists treat diseases they find but exactly which diseases they treat and with what methods varies somewhat, depending on in what state the person works
What Optometrists do not do in general is surgery. Eye surgery is done by ophthalmologists.
- Education - an Optometrist has attained the degree of Doctor of Optometry (OD.) The schooling takes four years AFTER college. More and more OD's now are also completing a residency after they graduate from Optometry school. This is an extra year spent usually in some type of institution where there are more experienced practitioners overseeing the resident's work. There are about twenty Optometry schools in the US.
- Starting salary - that is going to be very hard to say because I imagine it varies tremendously, depending upon various factors. I would guess full time OD's earn somewhere between $65,000 and $250,000. But an average is probably around $100,000 if the person works full-time. Many OD's do not see patients a whole 40 hours per week, because the profession allows flexibility in schedule and those who manage a practice must spend time on administration.
- Pros about the job - one of the loveliest gifts about this job that almost no one ever talks about is the fact that in most cases, if an OD does everything right in examining a patient, they will get the desired result. In other words, there is reward and satisfaction in that almost every patient brings us a problem we have the power to solve. This is so contrary to many fields. Take for example, a stock broker. He can research a stock in great depth, but when he recommends a client buy it, he really has no control at all on how well that stock actually does. The results are completely out of his control. Another example is an oncologist (doctor who treats cancer) An oncologist can do everything right to the best of his ability with a patient and the patient may still die. But, with the optometrist, most people bring us problems that are solvable.
- another pro is the flexibility in schedule.
- for someone who likes people and has a passion for eyes, it can be a very interesting and pleasant profession to practice.
- cons about the job - well, the biggest one right now is our broken health care system. The immense confusion among all the various vision plans, which are never the same as the medical plans, makes for a tremendous amount of confusion, inefficiency and paperwork. Then we have the fact that the managed care plans often do not pay for visits they are supposed to but know that the rates they pay are so low that the OD's cannot afford to spend the time fighting for the payment.
- there is also confusion among the public about the different "O's" in eyecare - the opticians who make and sell glasses, the Optometrists who prescribe them and treat (some) disease and the Ophthalmologists who do the surgery. There are occasional turf battles between especially the latter two professions regarding who should be doing what.
- it is one of the few professions where the doctor is expected to maintain clinical proficiency and also sell things (glasses and contact lenses) at the same time.
- demographics - obviously, OD's are needed wherever people live because all people have eyes and need eyecare. I believe opportunities differ though between rural and urban settings. In rural communities, there may be better opportunity for someone who wants to set down stakes, build up a practice of his own and stay in one place for most of his career. That is, IF the right community could be found where there are fewer eyecare practitioners than needed. However, in urban settings there would be a larger variety of opportunity types, such as large clinics one could work in and not need to run one's own practice, optical shops needing an OD to work as a non-owner, ability to move easily from one practice situation to another.
