This article is not to be missed if you want to become an optometrist. You'll learn so much information about that career and in a very concise way to avoid wasting time. For example, after reading this article, you will know where optometrists work, how much they get paid and what kind of studies you need to do.
Being an optometrist offers unlimited opportunities. You can work with elderly patients, children, contact-lens patients and the partially blind. You can work in a team or alone, it's up to you! When you propose a solution to a vision problem, you immediately see the result, and you can see the client's satisfaction, it is really rewarding.
They examine the structures of the eye to evaluate its neural connections, and they determine its ability to see colors accurately. Optometrist can measure distance perception and guide you through choosing the right corrective lenses, so you can see better than you do right now. Finally, they can diagnose eye disease like cataract and help you through the process of healing.
On a typical day, optometrists see patients from the beginning of the morning to the end of the afternoon. In the day, the optometrist will certainly do some eye tests and recommend glasses. In average, optometrists spend 37 hours per week in the office and see 60 patients per week.
Optometrists can work in a variety of places. They can work in hospitals, in optical stores, in the building of other optometrists or ophthalmologists and also in HMOs.
If you want to become an optometrist, you need to have a university degree in optometry (five years). To have a chance to enter, having superior grades in math, physics, chemistry, biology, anatomy and physiology are the must. You also need to do an interview, and you can be rejected if you don't do well. Additionally, you need to do the CASPer exam and a questionnaire to find out your motivations. https://admission.umontreal.ca/programmes/doctorat-de-1er-cycle-en-optometrie/admission-et-exigences/#:~:text=Les%20candidats%20s%C3%A9lectionn%C3%A9s%20sont%20convoqu%C3%A9s,L'entrevue%20peut%20%C3%AAtre%20%C3%A9liminatoire.
Starting salaries of optometrists are relatively high, but it depends on the geographic area and the specialization. If you start your own practices, you'll probably earn less than if you start working as salaried employees, but, after five years, if you have a great reputation, you can achieve a six-figure range instead of $30 000 per year to $85 000 per year (salaried employees). After ten years, the optometrists working in private practices end up with a bigger salary than the salaried employees.
Some optometrists go back to school for a master's degree or a PhD to acquire the capacities needed to teach the job or to specialize in different areas like neuro-optometry or pediatric optometry. Also, some optometrists decide to pursue research positions. Technology is moving fast so the optometrists need to stay up to date about the new treatments and techniques.
Being an optometrist is a pretty safe career. They are not manipulating dangerous substances or handling emergencies, so it is a great solution for stressed people. Compare to other health professionals, it is not a potentially dangerous position.
Optometrists will probably not be replaced by robots, but can be assisted by robots to minimize medical mistakes and unpredictability in client treatment. According to some sites, optometrists have 14% of chances of being replaced by robots. https://www.replacedbyrobot.info/64136/optometrist
It depends on every optometrist. Some of them really love their job and continue to do it as longs as they can, but others prefer to retire earlier. In fact, it is possible to retire at the age of 50 years old or around that. After that career, optometrists are able to say that they gained abilities with social relations and that they know pretty much everything about eyes. They are proud of all the people they helped to see better and, by the same token, live better. They might regret some decisions about the path they took because some of them will work all their life like a salaried-employee and maybe, at the end, they will ask themselves why they didn't try to start their own practices.
Briefly, being an optometrist is not a job for everyone. You need motivation to go through the long process of learning at school and determination to stay up to date with new technologies, but, when you love it, it is a fantastic career with multiple tasks and paths to suit everyone. It is a rewarding career filled with beautiful human encounters and exciting discoveries in relation to new treatments for eyesight.
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