Hi people. I got an offer from UNSW to study Bachelor of Optometry / Bachelor of Science, but I'm not really sure of the job opportunities. Rather than just selling spectacles or running a business, I am willing to specialise in something like Opthalmology, but could optometry graduates do Opthalmology, or must you do medicine first? Please help out because I'm totally lost.
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B Optom. / B. Science job opportunities. (2 Viewers)
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RogueAcademic
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Opthalmology is a medical specialist area, so you'd need to do a med degree first. With an optom/sci degree, you could into vision research if you don't want to be a straight out optometrist, if you complete a PhD, you could have a career as a lecturer/professor at university.Hi people. I got an offer from UNSW to study Bachelor of Optometry / Bachelor of Science, but I'm not really sure of the job opportunities. Rather than just selling spectacles or running a business, I am willing to specialise in something like Opthalmology, but could optometry graduates do Opthalmology, or must you do medicine first? Please help out because I'm totally lost.
I have a friend who is an optometrist. As I understand it, a few years ago, with a little extra training (or maybe it's all incorporated into the optometry degree now), optometrists can now prescribe certain kinds of medication.
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RogueAcademic
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If there is, I'm not aware. You have to go through a medical degree first.Is it possible to do a specialisation provided by UNSW or somewhere else, after graduating from Optom/Science to become an opthalmologist?
Optometry predominantly concerns mostly vision - diagnosing vision disorders and vision correcting with external non-invasive aids like glasses and contact lenses and (I think) some minor medication like some types of eye drops etc. An optometry student may be able to give you a more elaborate answer to this.
Opthalmology on the other hand is more about using medication/drugs and some surgical technique in treating the actual eye - eye disorders & diseases, and vision disorders. So that's why you'd have to have a medical background as a basis before training as an opthalmologist.
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RogueAcademic
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What exactly do you want to do in the opthalmology area?
Many opthalmologists just 'treat patients'. For eg, a patient is referred to them by a GP as having an eye problem, the opthalmologist then diagnoses the problem and treats it with medication or if it just concerns minor surgery the opthalmologist might perform the minor surgery, or if it's a major problem, the opthalmologist might then refer the patient to another specialist, like an eye/nose/throat surgeon who has specified skill in that kind of surgery.
What a scientist with a background in vision/biomedical science does is he/she actively finds new medications, or new ways of treatment, new diagnostic technique etc, all of which the opthalmologists then use when they're treating patients. So vision/biomedical scientists are often the pioneers in research. Because of their medical background, opthalmologists can also do this kind of research. I don't have the statistics in front of me but I think most opthalmologists focus predominantly on the treating patients.
Many opthalmologists just 'treat patients'. For eg, a patient is referred to them by a GP as having an eye problem, the opthalmologist then diagnoses the problem and treats it with medication or if it just concerns minor surgery the opthalmologist might perform the minor surgery, or if it's a major problem, the opthalmologist might then refer the patient to another specialist, like an eye/nose/throat surgeon who has specified skill in that kind of surgery.
What a scientist with a background in vision/biomedical science does is he/she actively finds new medications, or new ways of treatment, new diagnostic technique etc, all of which the opthalmologists then use when they're treating patients. So vision/biomedical scientists are often the pioneers in research. Because of their medical background, opthalmologists can also do this kind of research. I don't have the statistics in front of me but I think most opthalmologists focus predominantly on the treating patients.