Personal Narrative : Why Optometry?

Careers in the medical field will allow me to experience a life I never had, but always dreamed of. I will finally be able to support my family financially without struggling and I will be able to say “I am the first doctor in my family.” That alone is enough to prove to myself that I actually made it.

What began as mere admiration for my childhood optometrist quickly evolved into a fervent aspiration when I began working as an optometric technician at Eye & Vision Care. Having been myopic since the age of 6, I have always had an interest in the inner workings of the eye and decided to apply to this job, without any concrete career plans in mind.

Please describe what inspires your decision for becoming an optometrist, including your preparation for training in this profession, your aptitude and motivation, the basis for your interest in optometry, and your future career goals. Your essay should be limited to 4500 characters.

An eager interest in the workings and anatomy of the eye has stemmed my interest towards a career in optometry. My fondness for science came from reading the book ‘The Man Who Mistook His Wife for His Hat', which recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders, this drove my passion past the scope of the curriculum, engaging with ideas independently to follow a career in optometry.

I shadowed Dr. Martin Skie at the University of Toledo Medical Center when I started contemplating a career as a physician. He is an orthopedic surgeon and I had the privilege to shadow during several surgeries, and throughout clinical rotations. I spent over fifty hours shadowing him over the course of a month. I also had the opportunity to shadow Dr. Zachary Ginsberg, an intensivist, in Kettering Medical Center’s intensive care unit. I was able to discuss the patients, their conditions, the lab results, imaging studies, medications, procedures, and the science behind the thought process while shadowing for over one hundred hours over several months. Both opportunities provided insight into different specialties and sparked my interest.Since

Optometry is the perfect fit that blends my professional goals, my interests in science, and healthcare with individual strengths of compassion, relational service, and leadership. It is affirming when passion meets purpose, and for me, the optometry profession is just that. My passion in life is to serve others and to improve their health and well-being, while my purpose is to reach my full potential as a medical provider. My inspiration to pursue a career in optometry arises from a combination of my natural strengths, my life experiences, and my triumphs over life’s hardships.

During my sophomore summer, I shadowed Dr. Hoffman, a family medicine physician. From this, I learned the nature of general medicine and the intimate relationship that these physicals often develop with their patients.

Medicine has been a part of my life since as far as I could remember. The interest in this field sparked me at the moment of first experiences with the settings of a simple doctor’s office. Everything and anything that has to do with some sort of science always tends to attract my curiosity. In the seventeen years of my existence, although there is still more to learn, I believe the experiences and activities I have participated in make me a good candidate to become a successful general

What drew me to the field of optometry specifically is the fact that our eyes can be considered one of our most precious gifts. Growing up my siblings always needed some sort of corrective lenses, leaving me in the dark so to speak. When I was younger I suffered a corneal

The first time I was first exposed to the overwhelming benefits of Optometric medicine was when I was 17 years old. It was the summer of 2011 and I was going to be a senior in high school. I decided to shadow my Optometrist, Dr. Lobe, for a senior project. Before shadowing, I knew that the Optometrist was a person I went once a year to get my eyes checked. I loved seeing my eye doctor and getting my eyes dilated, I would go back to school bragging to all my friends and educating them about why my pupils were dilated and the benefits of seeing an Optometrist. During the 40 hours I spent shadowing, my younger sister, Madison, who was 12 at the time, was seeing Dr. Lobe for accommodation problems. She had just started middle school and was doing poorly on the standardized tests in her classes. While on a routine eye exam, Dr. Lobe discovered that she was having difficulties focusing on small print. That summer I spend shadowing, I worked both in the office and at home with Madison. I helped her train and strengthen her eye muscles with the exercises Dr. Lobe prescribed to her.

When I began medical school, I wasn't sure which field of medicine I would be most interested in pursuing. Now that I have explored the range of possibilities through preceptorships, research, personal and clinical experiences, I have discovered that ophthalmology contains all of the elements of medical care that I have enjoyed during my training.

Primary eye care in the U.S. is a huge industry because there is an overwhelming amount of people that demand Optometrists. The demand for Optometrists is at an ultimate high, according to the American Optometric Association, employment will grow at a rate of 33% and is ranked #12 on the list of America’s top 100 jobs. In 2012 there were 40,000 Optometrists and 202 million people in need of vision correction. There is currently one licensed eye professional per 3,500 people and studies show that on average Optometrists see 19.8 additional patients per week if they are completely booked without adding hours to their practice. This means that Optometrists are doing a lot more than they can actually handle. Over the next decade the amount of patients will continue to increase especially through the elderly and those at risk for Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes “is the leading cause of new cases of blindness” and 2000 to 2050 there will be a 165% increase of people diagnosed with diabetes, so Diabetes will be another main reason for the demand of Optometry (Review of Optometry). The ratio between patients and Optometrist care providers are almost quadruple the amount. Vision Web shares that “over the past decade, as the U.S. population expanded 0.9 percent annually, the vision correction population grew at the same rate” (10). This means that as the population continues to grow, so does the demand for Optometry. The demand for Optometry continues to grow and the only way we can manage the amount of people demanding eye care is increasing the availability of doctors throughout the country. We can start doing this by making sure more Optometry schools are available within the medical field. Gonzaga should have an Optometry Program because of its location, Washington needs an Optometry program, and the demand for it will continue to go on a rise. The lack of Optometrists needs to resolved by adding a new

In order to keep their routine activities operational and functional; they have to solve their problems on daily basis. LensCrafters has recruited numerous optometrists and eye specialists to endow customers with quality services that fulfill their needs and they satisfy their life style. Patients’ demands trust and faith over their eye specialist so it is the duty of eye specialist to provide elegant services and to satisfy them at every step. They must be confident about the consequences after eye examination (Hansen, M. T., & Birkinshaw, 2007). Actually, effectiveness of human resource can be measured by the level of customer satisfaction through which company can achieve sustainability for long period of

My goals from a career in optometry begin with my optometry education. My plan for attacking optometry has three phases: Phase One- General optometric education at Nova Southeastern. I want an outstanding education, supplemented by practical experience, such as that offered by The Eye Care Institute. Phase Two (a.k.a. “the chicken”)- Exposure; after a general education, I seek exposure within the field through such activities as a mission trip, service opportunities, and initial employment in a diverse setting, such as public or rural health. Within these settings, one can experience vast new cultures and the subsequent pathologies that accompany people in diverse settings, living under diverse conditions. Phase Three (“the egg”)- Specialization:

Throughout my life, I have worked towards one goal which is to become a doctor. Medicine offers the opportunity for me to integrate different scopes of science while trying to improve human life. Medicine has intrigued me throughout all my life because it??s a never ending