What’s in your bag?

Some pack what they consider to be the bare essentials for the day ahead, while others pack what they think they will need and then some. As friends have in the past likened my bag to that of Mary Poppins,’ I admit that more often than not I fall into the latter category.

Generally, I have observed that the contents of most people’s bags can be grouped into three types – personal and useful, in case of an emergency and work-related.


Over the last few months I have interviewed locums of different ages, backgrounds and experiences about their day-to-day. Their stories will form a new feature that we are launching in the October edition of OT, which lands at the end of the month (28 September).

A reoccurring theme that came up throughout these interviews was the level of equipment that the locum optometrist will pack and take with them to a practice – from their retinoscope to fluorescein strips, tropicamide 1% and phenylephrine 2.5%. What they pack can be described as what they believe they could not live without in practice that day.

One locum optometrist told me that she packs as though the practice will not have anything and therefore ensures that she is able to perform her job to the best of her abilities regardless of what she finds on arrival.

Earlier this week, we launched a new competition on Instagram that gives you the opportunity to win £150 in Amazon gift cards. We would like to know what you could not live without in practice and why. Share a picture with us on Instagram, where you will find more details on how to enter on our page.

For inspiration, we have begun to share pictures taken by optometrist colleagues at the AOP of the tools that they could not live without in practice. The competition closes at midnight on 23 September.

Image credit: Pixabay/LUM3N