I?m sure my fellow opticians would agree with me that, as opticians, we do not just sell products. A big part of what we do is counsel people about their eyes and appropriate life enhancing vision products. How many times a week, depending on your clientele demographic, are you asked questions about impending cataract surgery, what to do between surgery and the post cataract refraction, and finally options for a client that may not need much of a distance Rx, but would be lost without the multiple working distances of progressives? And the doctor has told them they only need readers. In my practice I seem to be seeing these scenarios sometimes multiple times a week. This motivates me to keep my knowledge of cataract surgery up to date. In the last few years Blue Light has been a topic of interest with clients and within our industry. Another education opportunity.

After all, most stakeholders and the public regard us as front line healthcare workers who are very accessible.

Another current topic of interest for us to educate our clients about is eye strain and myopia. The press has been publishing reports that claim there is a myopia epidemic on this planet and it will continue with 50% of the world suffering vision loss due to myopia by 2050. ?This topic has intrigued me this past year and has motivated me to use it for my self-directed learning this year. Continue reading Opticians Are Educators →