What pre-reg pathway and why

Optometry graduate and AOP Council member, Ali Yasen, is about to embark on a pre-reg placement with Boots Opticians in Bournemouth.

The practice is a franchise store, which Mr Yasen feels is the right path for him because he has an ongoing relationship with the company, having worked in its healthcare portfolio since 2006.

Having originally applied for a placement with the multiple through its core store systems and been successful, a change in circumstance saw Mr Yasen contact a franchisee in his home town directly.

“I called the franchisee and after a meeting over dinner was offered the role,” he shared.

During his pre-reg year, Mr Yasen is excited to be based across three different practices due to the wide range of patients that this will give him access to.

“[It will give me the opportunity] to see different patient cases and enable me to test across a whole range of ages and pathologies,” he said.

The practice where Mr Yasen will be based the majority of the time has an optical coherence tomography device. “I am looking forward to this as it will allow me to build up my clinical experience,” he added.

Mr Yasen admitted that while excited about the year ahead to qualification, he is nervous. “My main concern is missing pathology,” he shared, adding that he would be going thorough university notes in preparation for his first day.

Discussing what he is most looking forward to during the pre-reg year, Mr Yasen told OT: “To be able to build on and bolster everything that I have learned in a way that helps people is going to be quite exciting.”

Ali Yasen will be sharing his pre-reg experiences with readers through OT’s monthly pre-reg focus feature from November.