“I don’t believe in having competition in optometry”

I remember going for an eye test when I was nine years old.

I had always liked having my eyes examined. I really liked the environment, and looking at the glasses, even if I didn’t need any. I was interested in what was done in the testing room. On that occasion, when I was nine, I knew I was going to be given spectacles. I also remember vividly that, in the middle of the test, I really wanted to know what the answer to the duochrome was. That made me decide that I wanted to be an optometrist when I was older.

At school, I was looking at eye care options, and I came across orthoptics, which I thought looked interesting.

I went on to study orthoptics at the University of Sheffield. At Sheffield, I was completely immersed in student life. I’d just left home; I was independent, and I was making really good friends. I loved it, but it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to do optometry.

I qualified as an orthoptist, and went straight into a locum placement, covering for a month in Stockport.

I then took a three-month block at Leeds General Infirmary, covering a maternity leave. After that, I worked for six months at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. I really loved the experiences of being in different places. Addenbrooke’s was incredible: a huge teaching hospital, with so much knowledge.

After working for a year as an orthoptist, I relocated, got married, and started working at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

At the time, there was a lot of pressure on the Government to reduce waiting lists in A&E. In Leicester, the A&E department incorporated eye casualty in its waiting times, and brought in certain professions to deal with issues there and then. This meant that, if A&E had a patient who needed to see an orthoptist, they could be seen in that department, as opposed to waiting to be seen in the orthoptic department.

I started working in eye casualty as an orthoptist.

That was a really great opportunity for me. What I loved about it was that, because orthoptics patients weren’t constantly coming into eye casualty , I was involved in many other aspects of eye care too. I was triaging a lot, and I learned so much just being there.

From there, I decided to go on and study optometry at Aston University.

My two university experiences were really different. When I went to study optometry, I was a mature student, married, working part-time as an orthoptist in eye casualty, and commuting to university. That experience was a lot more about the learning. I was only 22 years old when I went to study optometry, but I felt like an old lady when compared to the 18-year-olds coming in.

My pre-reg, with Vision Express in Loughborough, was a fantastic experience.

I was working with some absolutely brilliant people. They looked after me so well, and I'm still in touch with many of them, over 20 years later. It will always be a special place for me, and I love seeing their growth.

After my pre-reg, I moved to a different branch of Vision Express.

It is natural for me to try to learn different things. When you are newly qualified, I feel is is so important to build your experience. Being in one place, I thought, ‘this is great and I’m learning a lot, but I don’t know what’s happening outside this bubble that I’m in.’

I decided to do some locum work, and that coincided with me having children.

I already had a lot of experience of working in eye care. Now, I was trying different things: I carried out some locum work with many independent practices, and in every single multiple, to understand what was available. That’s also when I first locumed in domiciliary.

I started in domiciliary as a locum, and at the beginning, I hated it.

Obviously, we adapt our eye tests in practice, but it was different every single time in the domiciliary environment. I wasn’t really comfortable working outside of a practice room, where conditions weren’t optimal. But I stuck with it, and I started to really see how worthwhile it was, and how I had the skills to change somebody’s life with optometry. It was really good for me, because I was seeing a lot of pathology, and I really liked the variety and the flexibility.

My patients have opened my eyes to the greater needs of society. I’m much more aware of when people have problems in their lives, and I’m much more open to helping

I locumed for four years, including two years in domiciliary, and then the opportunity came up to become a partner with Specsavers Home Visits.

I decided to take that opportunity and go into partnership. In this role, I’ve developed and become more confident in proactively making sure I’m looking after somebody. My patients have opened my eyes to the greater needs of society. I’m much more aware of when people have problems in their lives, and I’m much more open to helping. I’ve now been in this role for 11 years.

As a Home Visits partner, I have a really strong voice within Specsavers.

I’m also chair of chairs for domiciliary, so I do a lot of work with the board, and I love it all. I feel like my professional development and personal development has really improved.

During the pandemic, I also worked as a COVID-19 vaccinator in the hospital.

I saw that they were looking for healthcare professionals to become vaccinators. I thought, ‘As an optometrist, I’ll never get an opportunity to do this again.’

So many people were thankful that I was vaccinating them. It was brilliant, but I was very aware of my responsibilities. It was a very tense time, because we were all isolating, and everybody was wearing masks, so being around other people was quite nerve-wracking. We were trying to save people’s lives, and bring the number of cases down. It was a great experience, because I felt like I was really helping, and really learning.

Three years ago, I decided to become a College of Optometrists assessor.

It shows me where the trainees are: how are they learning? How are they coming into optometry now? It’s very different to how it was when I qualified, 20 or 25 years ago.

As an assessor, I have to tell myself: ‘you are here to assess, not to teach.’ I think that the more knowledge we can share with each other, the better we all become. We should all be lifting up each others’ lives, and not competing or putting each other down.

I’ve also taken on my own pre-registration optometrist, the first ever pre-reg in domiciliary, which I’m very excited about.

Assessing, I feel like I’m helping those trainees to develop well and know enough to be able to qualify. I feel like I’ve got so many different aspects that I’ve covered in my career, that in taking on a pre-reg, I can demonstrate that and open it up to other people. It’s also good for me, in terms of my own experience and developing and improving my business.

The more knowledge we can share with each other, the better we all become

I’ve been working to get pre-regs into domiciliary for about five years.

There are so many barriers, including because the pre-reg programme is set up for practices. There was no way I was going to take on a pre-reg when I couldn’t support them properly, or they weren’t going to get through that year well enough. So, I’ve spent five years anticipating every problem that could potentially come up. I’ve done a lot of work with the College of Optometrists and with Specsavers, and I’ve now got to a point where I can make this work.

At the moment, I’m happy with where I am, but will I pick up other opportunities where I can.

There’s a lot going on with Zocular Eyelid System Technology dry eye training, and bringing that into the market. I’m learning how to do that, because it’s a really good opportunity. I’m happy to take on different challenges when they arise.

Not long ago, the practice where I completed my pre-reg relocated and was built up again from scratch.

It opened in a massive blaze of glory. I went in to see them, and my previous supervisor gave me a guided tour. I felt so proud, seeing where it is now. I don’t believe in having competition in optometry. We are all optometrists, and we are all there to do a job for our patients. That practice is a place, for me, that is really special. They launched my optometry career, and they are a wonderful bunch of people.