Building a great dispensing team

What skills do you look for in a great future dispensing optician?

Sarah Joyce (SJ): For me, a great dispensing optician (DO) will be someone with strong communication skills, who is empathetic and is passionate about what they do.

Those things are key. All the technical skills, you can train. But actually, as a dispensing optician, you probably spend the most significant amount of time with patients of anyone in the practice. You can be seeing them at the point where they’ve received bad news. You can be seeing them when they’re stressed. You can be seeing them when things aren’t going well.

You’re also supporting them to make a choice on something that is going to sit on their face all the time. It’s quite a big decision for people. It’s all about those interpersonal skills. If you’ve got the right behaviours and communication skills, you’ll learn the rest through your course, and you’ll be fine.

Kirsteen Newman (KN): I always look for someone who is great with people. In my experience, that can’t be taught. Things like an aptitude for science and maths is important, but now that we have development routes for colleagues like the DO apprenticeship, it means that people in our practices who typically haven’t excelled academically could still have an amazing career as a dispensing optician.

People who are great communicators, and enjoy working with the public, tend to go above and beyond in terms of the service and care that they offer. I think they work well under pressure, and as part of a team. They tend to be able to raise the bar in practice in terms of the quality of dispensing and customer service. The communication and people element is key for future dispensing opticians.

How do you encourage other practice team members, for example, optical assistants, to take the DO qualification?

KN: Building a practice that shows team members all the different career progression opportunities that are available is so important. Selfishly, I want them all to go on to become dispensing opticians, but I’ve always been a fan of helping colleagues find the best route for progression for them.

In terms of the DO qualification, being able to see from different team members the difference that qualification has on the care that they offer their patients is a pretty persuasive argument.

SJ: I think it's a great opportunity for them, and a great chance to go from being an optical assistant into a full-blown career. You can go from being a DO to being a contact lens optician, to owning your own business, to being a manager, or to being an optometrist. You can have a really great career journey, in this sector.

At Specsavers, we have some accredited courses as stepping stones into the DO course. They provide a nice step into bite-sized learning, and being able to focus it on areas that you’re interested in, rather than having to jump straight from potentially not having done much education for a while to throwing yourself into the full-blown degree. They give a bit of a taster.

A lot of colleagues value the satisfaction they get by having that increased knowledge and understanding. It’s so relevant to what they do day-in, day-out. It’s not an academic course that they don’t then use. It’s a practical course that they use daily. Most people, once they’ve started on that journey, find it really beneficial, and most want to continue, which is great.

How can existing practice team members help to upskill new DOs?

SJ: Part of our duty as healthcare professionals is to support others and the next generation of people coming through. I think that’s really important. That might be supervising pre-regs, as optometrists, or supervising and supporting someone who is going through the Specsavers Cert 3 [for future DOs] at the beginning of their journey.

The benefit, if you think of the practice team as a whole, is that there are lots of different skill sets. You’ve got optometrists who have clinical knowledge, you’ve got people with great management experience; you’ll have people with great communication skills that you can learn from.

We’ve all got a responsibility to support the development of others. Within a wider team, there are lots of different skill sets that can support the DO in being the best they can be. That ranges from helping them with tracing ray diagrams through lenses, through to how to have a difficult conversation, because this person has worked in practice for 20 years, and they’ve had lots of those conversations.

We’ve all got a responsibility to support the development of others. Within a wider team, there are lots of different skill sets that can support the DO in being the best they can be

KN: It would be remiss of me not to mention how important the self-led continuing professional development (CPD) elements are for newly qualified DOs – things like Specsavers’ annual Professional Advancement Conference. Opportunities to network and grow are really valuable, but there’s nothing that makes up for the peer-to-peer support that happens in practice.

I think the best support for newly qualified DOs is encouraging them to put their theoretical knowledge into practice, with some of the more challenging elements, but also getting them involved as practice task supervisors as early as possible, to allow them to keep their knowledge and skills up to date.

At Specsavers, we really encourage our newly qualified DOs to get involved with our BTEC qualifications. We offer those to optical assistant colleagues, so that they can grow their expertise. We use newly qualified DOs as assessors, facilitators or coaches on those courses. It really grows their confidence, when they can see others develop because of something they've done, or the impact that they’ve had.

What are the key benefits that a great DO can bring to a practice?

KN: There are loads. We can look at it from a commercial point of view, in terms of lowering remakes and higher quality dispensing, and the lifetime journey that we take on when we deal with under-16s dispensing.

But I think the reality is that all of these are clinical benefits that lead to better service for our patients. The reason I became a dispensing optician was to achieve greater clinical outcomes. Great DOs have an incredible ability to fulfil this role as part of a multi-disciplinary team. They’ve got a sixth sense for what is going on in the practice, and they always seem to be able to steady the ship or provide a resource for other team members to look up to. I think that’s incredible, and a role that's really difficult to fill.

They’ve got a sixth sense for what is going on in the practice, and they always seem to be able to steady the ship or provide a resource for other team members to look up to. I think that’s incredible

How important is continuous upskilling for a DO?

SJ: It’s essential. Things are changing rapidly all the time, whether it be technology, product, or design.

It is important to understand more about other areas of the journey as well. If you think of myopia management, and the conversations that we’re now having with parents and children with regards to myopia, that’s not all happening in the testing room. Our dispensing opticians absolutely need to be supporting parents and guardians with those conversations.

KN: It’s essential, in the world that we’re living in. The things that used to be exceptional or futuristic have become an expectation. Customers have come to expect the accuracy of digital measurements.

Beyond that, there is the ageing population, the increased prevalence of myopia in children, and the increased demands of the digital world. Eye care needs are constantly changing, and we need to be able to keep pace with all of that.

Patients aside, being able to develop yourself is what will keep you focused and passionate in your role, and where real job satisfaction lies. That’s advice for DOs, but also for anyone working in practice.

SJ: If I think back to when I first qualified, 20 plus years ago, optics felt like it had been pretty steady for 20 years. It was a bit set in its ways. In the past five or 10 years, if I think about the technology that has been introduced, the new lens products, the expectations of patients, and the digital journeys – DOs play a massive role in all those things, as part of that multi-disciplinary team.

Getting DOs to work towards the top end of their license, just like we’re asking optometrists to, allows us to deliver the best outcomes for our patients. If we think about extended services or diagnostics, and all the other bits that DOs can support with as much as selling and problem solving when things go wrong with your glasses, that is more important than ever. All the changes in technology that we are seeing are in the dispensing space as much as they are in the testing room.

Getting DOs to work towards the top end of their license, just like we’re asking optometrists to, allows us to deliver the best outcomes for our patients

DOs are often patient-facing, at the centre of the practice – any tips for how they can protect their own wellbeing when they have to be ‘on’ all the time?

SJ: Everything we do in optical and in healthcare is patient-centric, but you still need to take your breaks. It might be that at lunch you want to go and read your book for 20 minutes, because you’ve been talking to people all day. Or, you might need to go for a walk because you’ve been stuck inside and you need fresh air.

It’s really key to take your breaks, and not be tempted to push them back until it’s five o’clock and you've worked all the way through. Taking that time out, for yourself, makes you feel better. It is full on, when you’re patient facing all the time.

KN: At Specsavers, we’re lucky enough to have great employee assistance programmes and mental health first aiders, and we have various network groups that allow staff to communicate with like-minded people. We also run things like the Take 30 initiative, where we encourage people to find 30 minutes in the day that’s just for them, whether that’s going for a walk, reading a book during lunch, or grabbing a quiet minute to reflect if you’ve had a bit of a difficult encounter.

It’s important to put ourselves first in those situations. I would encourage everyone to look at the support tools that are on offer from their employer, and make the most of them.

Personally, I like to go out for a walk, get some sunshine and some vitamin D, and try and prioritise work life balance. Development helps with that. I did a course recently that really focused on career and personal goals. Taking that time out has helped me spotlight my own wellbeing in a really powerful way.

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Optical assistants Chris Rosser and Kelly Cato, from Specsavers Haverfordwest, tell OT about the mental health support they are offering colleagues in practice

How vital is the role of a DO in enhancing the public’s view of optical services?

KN: We are absolutely critical. DOs are very often the first and the last part of a patient journey. In an age where we’re able to buy optical products online, it’s crucial that we offer practice experiences that really hit the mark and can’t be replicated in an online market.

Where we excel is that we have all of this extensive knowledge that ensures we can meet patient needs and dispense with accuracy and skill. You can’t get that online.

The work that the likes of ABDO are doing, partnering with Mumsnet, is amazing. It’s absolutely our role to educate parents and the public about the importance of eye health, especially in children. We can play such a vital role in that.

SJ: Optometrists are in the testing room, so they speak to patients when a patient is booked in to see them. Dispensing opticians are taking phone calls, and speaking to patients when they come into practice with questions. They probably have the longest amount of time with the patient overall, in that customer journey, if you consider how long the dispensing period takes.

Often, when people have had a moment to take in the information that has being given to them by the optometrist, they’ll realise they do have more questions. DOs play a really important part in supporting that wider clinical journey for the patient.

One of my colleagues talks about how you wouldn’t go into a mobile phone shop now and buy a Nokia 3310, because you know it wouldn’t give you everything you need. DOs need to have all of the knowledge to understand the patient’s needs, all the information we’ve ascertained through that customer journey, and everything that has come out of the testing room from a clinical perspective, and piece it all together into what is going to give the best outcome for that patient. That’s a really tough job. They get a prescription with numbers on it, and they have to piece the rest together.

The role that the DO has is really undervalued within the team. It is probably the last contact point that a patient will have. It’s vital that we make sure we’ve got the right capability and expertise within our teams to support patients when they need it.

Lots of business owners that OT speaks to are also DOs – do you think this is a job role that particularly lends itself to leadership?

SJ: Absolutely. It’s quite common for DOs to go into management, although I don’t think they have to. There are a lot of DOs who go on to become contact lens opticians.

Either way, there still has to be a healthcare professional who is a clinical leader in the practice, even if they’re not a business leader. The skills that you learn in order to be a clinical leader are similar to what you use as a business manager. Understanding the world of optics, by having been a DO and having worked in that environment, makes it much easier when you’re looking to lead that business, in being able to work out strategy and so on. There’s a lot that crosses over, which is why it’s such a natural fit.

KN: I used to own a Specsavers practice, and I think DOs are very good at spinning a lot of plates: they’re really great with people, and they tend to have a real passion for bettering themselves. You do find that a lot of them develop into business owner roles.

Above all of that, you get first-hand experience of the difference that you can make to patients as a DO. That really inspires you to want to give that to other people. The best part of the job for me was being able to develop my team into dispensing opticians, or whatever it is they wanted to be. Funding support, through things like the DO apprenticeship, allows business owners to be able to provide the DOs of the future. I think that’s such a privilege.

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