Originally Posted by
sharpstick777
John,
Please let me know if you have one single example of any career field that has improved its income through institutional ignorance? Its thinking like yours that leave Opticians chained to the past, and destined for a sad future of low income, enormous job stress, and tragic levels of turn-over. Behind your thinking is a parade of former Taco Bell employees willing to try Optical to make a $1 more an hour and get Sunday’s off.
Troubleshooting progressive issues by randomly changing lenses is the same as driving to Australia by randomly changing roads, the result is often terrible lens choices, unhappy patients, and extra expensive for everyone. Advanced optics is needed for effective troubleshooting. Patients are frustrated by our collective incompetence every day. I get phone calls from PATIENTS around the US every week who have heard about me, and have Optical issues their Optician has not been able to solve. Mostly from unlicensed states, who do I refer them too? I wish I knew.
I have in the dispensing table, with the simple complaint “I can’t see well through my glasses” been able to refer (often as an emergency) for medical conditions the following:
37 cases of diabetes, 6 cases of keratoconus, 4 optical or brain tumors impeding the orbit or nerve, 1 heart attack, 2 cases of DRP, 11 cataracts, 3 cases of cranial or brain swelling, mixed pathologies, 1 case of uncillating tarantula FB , 2 cases of enlarged optic nerves… one idiopathic, one not.
And 11 detached retinas of various degrees. It should be noted in 3 of these cases the patients were experiencing optical emergencies and may have lost their sight without immediate attention. Thankfully, all these emergencies were treated immediately and successfully, one the Dr. said the patient would have lost their sight in less than 2 hours!
I didn’t diagnose these, but I recognized that the patient was having an issue or medical emergency not with their glasses but with their pathology or systemic physical health… And was able to accelerate their proper diagnosis and treatment because I could recognize the symptoms and separate an eyeglass issue from a medical issue. What have you missed? You may not even know.
Adjustments… ????? Do you adjust from across the room?
I teach at two 2 year college Optical programs, and sadly, even 2 years is not enough. I really want a 4 year program to cover all the aspects I use every single week.. lets see, 4 more business classes, accounting, marketing, salesmanship, Advanced Optics: troubleshooting, etc. an entire 2 quarters on progressive lens optics and advanced lens attributes. 2 quarters of pathologies your likely to encounter in dispensing, I could go on… Multifocal contact lens fits, etc.
You are right, and its your attitude that will accelerate it. How much lower can we go? Its already terrible, would clown noses make you happy? Bring it down? You already have. How can you teach anything though, really?
You contradict yourself here, the Opticians got it wrong, but the OD’s got it right? How did they get it right? If not by educating themselves. Weird. No one handed Opticians the short end of the stick, we bit it off ourselves by thinking just like yours.
Wrong. I live in licensed state, but it’s an OPTIONAL license, only Opticians own their own shops must have a license. However, a licensed Optician here on average earns $26 an hour when working for an OD or OMD, and unlicensed pays $19, and there are few Opticians here making $80K+ a year. Both I believe are far above the national average. It may surprise you, but Drs. Here WANT LDO’s with EDUCATION, I could fill 5 or 6 positions tomorrow but we lack qualified people. Its because they see the difference educated Opticans make in their practices. It’s also because we have 2 Opticianry schools, as a result everyone benefits, both directly and indirectly. The end result is that Opticians here have RESPECT, both from patients and Drs. And that respect pays off… every day and every paycheck.
It’s a wall of your own making. If your own view of Opticianry is so low, please find another field. Maybe you should change the name of your site to:
opticianworksforpeanuts.com
Historically, there is only 2 ways professional service fields have ever improved their income in the last 600 years, the first was collective bargaining action (guilds, then unions) and the other is education. Since Unions are passe, that only leaves us one option. Education.
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