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| Assisting others in one of life's most precious gifts. | ||||
| THE GIFT OF SIGHT | ||||
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 Your area of specialty may become
the assisting of the optometrist or ophthalmologist. You will also
be meeting the public. A professional and compassionate personality
will prove helpful.
Your day may begin with basic office preparation and administrative work. You will likely prepare the examination rooms for a day of eye examinations and treatment. As patients arrive for their appointment, you will perform preliminary examination procedures. The procedures may include history recording, basic vision assessment, visual field testing, motility, intraocular pressure check, etc. As this type of allied health technician, you will assist the eye physician in a variety of diagnostic and administrative tasks.
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As a technician you will test and measure eye
function to assist with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disease.
A skilled technician can free the ophthalmologist or optometrist
to spend more time effectively with each patient, performing those
diagnostic and treatment tasks that only the doctor can do, and
to see more patients. The vision care technician is, in effect, a multiplier
of the doctors efforts.
Optometric and Ophthalmic Assistants
may also fit and dispense contact lenses and eyeglasses. In many
optometry practices, the optometric technician will perform many
of the duties performed by an optician.
You may be required to concentrate
in the management of the medical office. Your administrative duties
may include appointment
scheduling, third party management, payroll, purchasing, billing/collections,
accounts payable, personnel management, patient recall, etc.
As an Ophthalmic Assistant
you will play a vital roll along with the ophthalmologist/surgeon
in the patients vision care. As an ophthalmic medical technician,
you may serve as a surgical assistant to the ophthalmologist. As
an ophthalmic photographer you will photograph the eye structures for
diagnosis and documentation.
As a chair-side assistant you will record important information determined
by the doctor. You will also perform certain duties to assist the doctor
during the examination. Following the examination, you will assist
the patient with instructions, education, prescriptions, treatment,
eye patches, scheduling follow-up examinations, referring, etc.
Again, this is a simplified explanation
of your duties as an optometric or ophthalmic technician. There are
many other important intermediary procedures performed as a vision
care technician. Through it all, you will be exercising highly specialized
technical skills, painstaking patience and a thorough knowledge of
the visual system.