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Until recently, optometrists
were considered good for just one thing: prescribing
glasses for the visually impaired. Today, optometry
is a health profession that has come of age and
plays an ever-increasing and vital role in primary
eye care.
 The
ascendancy of optometry as a profession owes its
success to rigorous and demanding training in
American optometric colleges and universities,
modern technological advances that have contributed
to the expansion of the scope of practice of optometry,
and the burgeoning awareness that optometry is
at the vanguard of primary eye care. But the full
range of optometric practice is not yet fully
known by the general public. This, however, is
about to change as health maintenance institutions-particularly
in Asia, Europe and Latin America-are discovering
the clinical competence and the financial benefits
optometric care offers the world's expanding and
aging population.
The Profession
Whereas the old optometry was limited almost
exclusively to fitting eyeglasses, today's optometrists
examine, diagnose, treat and manage diseases of
the eye. In addition to providing treatments such
as contact lenses, corrective and low vision devices,
optometrists today are authorized to use diagnostic
and therapeutic pharmaceutical agents to treat
anterior segment disease, glaucoma, and ocular
hypertension. As primary eye care practitioners,
optometrists often are the first ones to detect
such potentially serious conditions as diabetes,
hypertension and arteriosclerosis. In fact, today
optometrists work closely with ophthalmologists,
neurologists, psychologists and other health care
practitioners. Except for invasive procedures,
the line between optometry and ophthalmology has
become increasingly blurred and the two professions
are gradually developing a symbiotic-if not sympathetic-relationship.
As with medicine, optometry offers a variety
of areas of specialization. Practitioners wishing
to focus in areas other than general practice
may select such specialties as contact lenses,
vision therapy and orthoptics, pediatrics, low
vision, sports vision, head trauma, learning disabilities
and occupational vision. Optometrists may and
often concentrate on one or two specialty areas
of optometry.
The Student
Students who apply to American optometric programs
are normally graduates of four-year colleges.
There are programs that accept students after
three years of college, but generally these are
special cases and would not apply to international
students. Applicants are typically science majors,
with a background in biology, chemistry, physics
and, to a lesser degree, psychology. Most applicants
have earned a grade point average of 3.0 or better
(out of 4.0) and Optometry Aptitude Test scores
of 320 or better in all the OAT's categories.
In addition, most applicants have worked or spent
significant time in optometrist's offices, hospitals
or physicians' offices familiarizing themselves
with the pros and cons of a career in health care.
Increasingly, applicants have also participated
in community social programs.
When asked about the factors influencing career
choices, a significant number of optometry school
applicants indicate that medicine had been their
first choice. But exposure to the medical field
and to the lives of physicians and their families
altered their views, leading them to select optometry
as their profession of choice. A close patient-optometrist
relationship; work schedule flexibility, particularly
for women interested in raising families; increased
community respect for the profession, and the
personable, painless interaction between patient
and optometrist were other factors that swayed
talented students away from other health maintenance
professions and into optometry.
The Colleges
There are 16 schools of optometry in the continental
United States, one in Puerto Rico and two in Canada.
The optometry schools in the United States are:
The University of Alabama at Birmingham; Southern
California College of Optometry (Fullerton, California);
University of California at Berkeley; Nova Southeastern
University College of Optometry (Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida); Illinois College of Optometry (Chicago,
Illinois); Indiana University School of Optometry
(Bloomington, Indiana); The New England College
of Optometry (Boston, Massachusetts); Michigan
College of Optometry at Ferris State University;
University of Missouri School of Optometry (St.
Louis, Missouri); State College of Optometry,
State University of New York (New York, New York);
Northeastern State University College of Optometry
(Tahlequah, Oklahoma); Pacific University College
of Optometry (Forest Grove, Oregon); Pennsylvania
College of Optometry (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania);
Southern College of Optometry (Memphis, Tennessee);
College of Optometry, University of Houston (Houston,
Texas); Inter-American University of Puerto Rico
School of Optometry (San Juan, Puerto Rico), and
The Ohio State University College of Optometry.
Tuition for out-of-state residents ranges from
$9,660 to $ 25,184, averaging $16,846 per year.
Cost of living depends on the location of the
college, and ranges from as little as $5,400 per
year to $15,000 or higher. The total yearly cost
for a non-resident student ranges from approximately
$19,000 to $35,000, with an average of $ 28,000.
Admissions Requirements
While there are minor differences in admission
requirements among optometry schools, only students
with a good college academic record, including
a score greater than 320 in the Optometric Aptitude
Test (OAT), an undergraduate degree in the sciences,
some exposure to optometry and a people-oriented
personality can expect admittance to optometry
schools. In addition to a thorough review of past
academic records, high school, college and aptitude
test scores, applicants undergo an admissions
interview that includes personality, interpersonal
skills, leadership, motivation, and communication
and written skills evaluations. Letters of reference
attesting to the intellectual and social excellence
of the applicant are also required.
Admissions applications, including supporting
documentation, need to be submitted as early as
12 months before the applicant is to begin the
first academic year. Required course work not
yet completed when the application is filed must
be completed by the time of-or shortly after-the
applicant's interview with the admissions committee
(interviews occur six months prior to the beginning
of the first academic term).
The Curriculum
It takes four years to complete the work leading
to a Doctor of Optometry degree. The first two
years focus on classroom and laboratory work in
the basic sciences, with emphasis on human anatomy
and physiology, visual anatomy and physiology,
biochemistry, pharmacology, systemic diseases,
and geometric and ophthalmic optics. Patient contact
in some institutions begins at the end of the
second year, but more often at the beginning of
the third year. At this time students develop
primary care diagnostic and management skills
under the supervision of faculty members. Fourth-year
students are involved in full-time patient care.
In their final year students may select externships,
either within the college's clinics or at affiliated
sites in the country or abroad.
Some optometry colleges offer foreign-trained
health professionals (generally ophthalmologists)
programs designed to increase their knowledge
and skills in optometric sciences and practice
but without issuing an OD degree, or accelerated
two-year programs leading to an OD degree.
The Practice
Most optometrists are self-employed, practicing
alone or in group practices. Some optometrists
practice with other health care professionals
in multidisciplinary settings, in the military,
in public health, in hospitals, in teaching institutions,
and the ophthalmic industry. Subject to few emergency
calls, independent work-schedules, and convivial
and agreeable doctor-patient relationships, optometry
offers one of those rare opportunities in today's
health care professions where the practitioner
finds fulfillment both in his work and his personal
life. In the United States, starting OD's yearly
income averages $80,000 to $ 85,000; after four
years of practice OD's income increases to $ 105,000
to $ 115,000 per year.
Author:
Rafael Urquidi,
Ph. D., International Programs Coordinator,
State University of New York State College of
Optometry
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