An Open Letter to the Opticianry Community
Your understanding or belief of opticianry or optician or whatever you wish to call it is just like your understanding of religion. I suspect that you hold some belief about what it means and how it relates to you. Just like religion some of you may be “sure” that you know what is right or true. Just like religion when we close our minds to the possibility that we are wrong or, that others may also be right but hold different beliefs than ours, then we are narrow minded bigots incapable of change.
FACT: You are not a bright as you think you are. You know what? If you were smart enough to be an engineer, doctor or scientist you would have been one. Instead you are an Optician which means, well, almost nothing in the big picture of things. Yes, I hereby state in this quasi-public forum, I am not the brightest guy, I have strengths and I have weaknesses and I manage to get by day to day but I am not brilliant, not a genius and not engineer or scientist material. Neither are you.
FACT: You are defensive of what you have and narrow minded about what you believe and cannot discern between what you believe and what is true. Here I stand apart from you. I recognize where I stand and where we stand in the pecking order of life. Where do I get this idea? Just read the White Paper and find me one verifiable fact or one statistically accurate idea.
Did You Know? There is no such thing as an optician.
As long as we have no national recognized standard for the occupation or practice or whatever you wish to call it naming it has no real meaning. OK? Get it? Get over it! So, your state has a license requirement, big deal, ten miles away across the state border Bob calls himself an optician and he drove a taxi last week.
If you want to make progress and really look to the future then you need to accept that we need a generic term for what we call opticianry. You must also be willing to share that title with both licensed and non-licensed professionals. By professional I mean an individual that has proven by careful and realistic assessment both practical and written that they are competent optical dispensers.
FACT: The ABO exam or certification exam is a waste of money, a waste of energy and not doing our field anything worthwhile. A minimal competency exam with a low passing score is not the way to build a reputation, a field, a career or a future.
The ABO, NFOS, NAO, VCA and every other acronym under the opticianry umbrella has FAILED. This I cannot express clearly enough.
If you give me an assigned task and I cannot make positive changes in five years time then I am a failure and I do not deserve to be a spokesperson or advocate for the industry. Most of these agencies have been around for fifteen, twenty, even thirty years and we are still in the exact same place. What does this tell you? I have people email me every day asking if they can buy certification from me and you know what? It is actually tempting sometimes to say yes! However, I do not and hold out for a time when I can offer certification with meaning.
Last year they held the Future of Opticianry panel discussion at Vision Expo East and guess what? We are right where we were. Last year we had the much touted “White Paper” on The Future of Opticianry and guess what? We are right where we were. Heck, they didn’t even bother to reply to comments and suggestions even after they asked for them. For more on those two events see my blog at
www.opticianworks.com.
Our states are in trouble and their budgets can barely cover public safety and infrastructure support. So, folks, no state is about to require a license to practice as an optician. There is no state program that would make it a profitable situation to require a license. So, forget that route!
Again and for the hundredth time… we are not in healthcare we are in business. If you cannot see or tell the difference maybe you are too stupid to even understand this position. Let me correct that, if you cannot see or tell the difference then you are too stupid to understand this position. Saying that you are in business does not mean that you are, by default, a salesperson which is the stale old argument that I always hear.
So what do we do?
Have you ever heard the term, “green fielding”?
Yep, wipe the slate clean and start all over again.
Until that happens, well, we can keep holding
"summits", meetings, councils, panels, surveys and all that and guess what? We will still be right where we were.
Do I think that opticianry has a future?
Yes and No.
Do I have ideas about where we should be going?
Yes
Do I think we could, as an entire industry, change?
Maybe but I worry we are to closed minded to think and look far enough ahead and far enough to the side for alternative solutions. The one direction we do not need to be looking is back!
Do I believe that I know the way forward?
Perhaps, but I recognize that I could be wrong and that others may be right. However, in this case I doubt it.
Figure out what we do and what we need to know by asking the right people.
Create meaningful certification.
Certification requires hands-on assessments.
Get buy-in from industry.
Get buy-in from medical or healthcare side of industry.
Agree on generic term for what we do.
Offer certification to all who desire it.
Make certification so rigorous that the industry notices that when they hire a “certified” optical dispensing professional that their business profits increase.
But, hey, what do I know…
Sincerely
John Seegers
The Optical Curmudgeon
www.OpticianWorks.com
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