What does an optometrist do?
A licensed optometrist is primarily responsible for the vision and eye care of clients, treating different conditions such as astigmatism, nearsightedness, and farsightedness. Their duties mostly revolve around performing eye and vision tests, diagnosing issues, providing consultations, prescribing corrective glasses and lenses, and educating clients on proper eye care methods. Furthermore, an optometrist must maintain records of all cases and treatment plans, and supervise support staff should they choose to work at a private clinic or a similar setting.
Optometrist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real optometrist resumes:
- Experience in OCT, visual fields, and EMR.
- View cataracts in live patients and compare to class examples.
- Work closely with the LASIK and cataract surgeons to provide comprehensive care to patients.
- Perform eye exams and care for all patients including pre op and post operative care.
- Specialize in anterior segment surgery, cataract, glaucoma, retinal problems, and ocular oncology.
- Create statistical reports with pre and post topography conditions and visual acuity results in IOL implant surgery.
- Provide individual, family and group therapy to children adolescents and families using a variety of models and interventions.
- Work in a setting that co-manage many patients with retinal specialist, corneal specialist, glaucoma specialist, and cataract surgeons.
- Treat patients with low vision rehabilitation routinely.
- Provide vision therapy and low vision rehabilitation.
- Provide comprehensive dental care to children and adolescents.
- Work with reputable ophthalmology professors in a private practice.
- Discover and develop techniques to better administer visual field test primarily to geriatric patients.
- Provide one on one personalize vision therapy sessions with pediatric and adult vision therapy patients
- Refer suspected systemic diseases for proper diagnosis and treatment and provide post examination counseling.
Optometrist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 29% of Optometrists are proficient in Patients, Patient Care, and Diagnosis. They’re also known for soft skills such as Interpersonal skills, Speaking skills, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Optometrists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 29%
Discovered and developed techniques to better administer visual field test primarily to geriatric patients.
- Patient Care, 13%
Owned and operated the business and oversaw all aspects, including personnel, patient care, and insurance claims.
- Diagnosis, 13%
Experienced in the diagnosis and management of ocular pathology with prescription of appropriate therapeutic agents.
- Customer Service, 7%
Solo practitioner providing comprehensive and emergency eye care with superior customer service.
- Diagnostic Tests, 7%
Perform diagnostic tests as assigned by the Optometrist.
- Pre, 6%
Scheduled patients, Answered phones, Ran pre exams on patients using several machines to include the latest in technology.
Most optometrists use their skills in "patients," "patient care," and "diagnosis" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential optometrist responsibilities here:
Detail oriented. This is an important skill for optometrists to perform their duties. For an example of how optometrist responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "optometrists must take care to provide appropriate treatment, including accurate prescriptions." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of an optometrist: "obtained detailed medical and personal data for patient charts and records. ".
Communication skills. A big part of what optometrists do relies on "communication skills." You can see how essential it is to optometrist responsibilities because "optometrists must explain diagnosis, treatment, and eye care in a way that patients can understand." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical optometrist tasks: "scheduled and re-scheduled patient's appointments using excellent communication skills and customer service. "
The three companies that hire the most optometrists are:
- Walmart677 optometrists jobs
- National Vision Administrators541 optometrists jobs
- Visionworks430 optometrists jobs
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Compare different optometrists
Optometrist vs. Eye clinic manager
The job of speech pathologists is to diagnose, treat, and prevent speech, social communication, language, swallowing, and cognitive-communication disorders in both children and adults. They are responsible for providing aural rehabilitation for people with hearing impairment and hearing loss, and alternative and augmentative systems for people with severe language comprehension disorders such as progressive neurological disorders and the autism spectrum. Speech pathologists may also work with individuals without language, swallowing, or speech disorders, but are eager to know how to communicate more effectively.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between optometrists and eye clinic manager. For instance, optometrist responsibilities require skills such as "patients," "patient care," "diagnosis," and "customer service." Whereas a eye clinic manager is skilled in "cpt," "customer issues," "office operations," and "eye exams." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Eye clinic managers tend to reach higher levels of education than optometrists. In fact, eye clinic managers are 5.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 18.4% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Optometrist vs. Eye specialist
Each career also uses different skills, according to real optometrist resumes. While optometrist responsibilities can utilize skills like "diagnosis," "customer service," "pre," and "visual acuity," eye specialists use skills like "appointment scheduling," "surgery," "quality customer service," and "dr."
Eye specialists earn similar levels of education than optometrists in general. They're 2.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 18.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Optometrist vs. Speech pathologist
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, optometrists are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "diagnostic tests," "pre," and "visual acuity." But a speech pathologist is more likely to have skills like "language," "speech," "home health," and "slp."
Speech pathologists make a very good living in the health care industry with an average annual salary of $74,516. On the other hand, optometrists are paid the highest salary in the health care industry, with average annual pay of $163,075.Most speech pathologists achieve a higher degree level compared to optometrists. For example, they're 40.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 25.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Optometrist vs. Chief, optometry service
Types of optometrist
Updated January 8, 2025
