Are you interested in pursuing a career in the medical field? Have you already ruled out the options of becoming a nurse, a paramedic, or other common choices within the medical field? Are you willing to attend school for an extended period of time, as long as you will be completing a degree program that will allow you to be professionally satisfied? Have you ever considered becoming a medical doctor in some capacity? If you answered a confident yes to each of these questions, then maybe it is a proper time for you to consider becoming an optometrist. Current online research shows that the field of optometry has promising signs of growth for the upcoming future, which just may make this an ideal time to enter this occupation. The growth that is projected for this industry is of a general nature and you should experience this growth even if you choose to work in an area of specialty.
As an optometrist it will be your responsibility to provide vision care to your patients. Under the umbrella of vision care you can likely expect to examine a patient’s eyes when they feel they are in need of glasses or contacts, to prescribe glasses or contacts for your patients when necessary, to help your patients treat diseases of the eyes, and to deal with other medically related issues that your optical patients may be dealing with. You will also have the authority to prescribe medications to your patients as they need them to address issues related to the care of their eyes. In addition, it is important to note that while many optometrists choose to focus their work efforts in an area of specialty, this is definitely not a requirement. Should you decide to choose an area of specialty, you will likely want to consider options such as pediatric optometry, vision therapy, or geriatric optometry. Of course, if you don’t think that choosing an area of specialty is ideal for you, then you will be considered a primary care optometrist. Find out what optical assistant training is right for you.
It is most common for optometrists to work within a privately owned practice or a chain type optometry setting. Regardless of which of these (or any other employment choices that appeal to you) employment options that you choose, you can likely expect to work a typical five day work week that does not include weekend, evening, or holiday hours. Should you decide to work within a privately owned optometrist office then you can expect to be responsible for tasks such as maintaining medical records for each of the patients who come into the office, scheduling appointments for your patients, taking care of the advertising for your business, and for ensuring a consistent level of positive customer service for all of your patients. Generally speaking, it will be up to you to ensure that all of the medical factors are adequately addressed, as well as each of the business aspects that will help the business be more successful.