What Does An Optometrist Do

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.

Here are examples of responsibilities from real optometrist resumes representing typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.

Manage and computerize scheduling, billing, and medical/insurance records management, including major carriers and Medicaid.
Evaluate and assess patients for pre and post cataract surgeries, retinal surgeries and glaucoma filtration surgeries.
Co-Manage large volumes of patients with local anterior segment specialists with regard to cataracts and other ocular disease.
Work with reputable ophthalmology professors in a private practice.
Provide comprehensive eye examinations including contact lens fitting and LASIK consultation within high-end optical shop.
Work with EHR program, EMA.
Interpret visual fields and OCT tests.
Comply with HIPPA rules and regulations.
Comply with HIPPA guidelines regarding patient's information.
Measure patient's eye length using an IOL master.

Optometrist Overview

Perhaps the hardest question to answer when deciding on a career as an optometrist is "should I become an optometrist?" You might find this info to be helpful. When compared to other jobs, optometrist careers are projected to have a growth rate described as "faster than average" at 10% from 2018 through 2028. This is in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What's more, is that the projected number of opportunities that are predicted to become available for a optometrist by 2028 is 4,000.

On average, the optometrist annual salary is $231,509 per year, which translates to $111.3 an hour. Generally speaking, optometrists earn anywhere from $135,000 to $395,000 a year, which means that the top-earning optometrists make $260,000 more than the ones at the lower end of the spectrum.

As is the case with most jobs, it takes work to become an optometrist. Sometimes people change their minds about their career after working in the profession. That's why we looked into some other professions that might help you find your next opportunity. These professions include an eye clinic manager, eye specialist, speech pathologist, and chief, optometry service.

Optometrist Skills and Personality Traits

We calculated that 33% of Optometrists are proficient in Patient Care, Diagnosis, and Customer Service. They’re also known for soft skills such as Speaking skills, Detail oriented, and Communication skills.

We break down the percentage of Optometrists that have these skills listed on their resume here:

Patient Care, 33%

Owned and operated the business and oversaw all aspects, including personnel, patient care, and insurance claims.

Diagnosis, 17%

Experienced in the diagnosis and management of ocular pathology with prescription of appropriate therapeutic agents.

Customer Service, 9%

Solo practitioner providing comprehensive and emergency eye care with superior customer service.

Diagnostic Tests, 8%

Perform diagnostic tests as assigned by the Optometrist.

Visual Acuity, 7%

Measured visual acuity and refraction.

Pre, 7%

Scheduled patients, Answered phones, Ran pre exams on patients using several machines to include the latest in technology.

Most optometrists list "patient care," "diagnosis," and "customer service" as skills on their resumes. We go into more details on the most important optometrist responsibilities here:

The most important skills for an optometrist to have in this position are speaking skills. In this excerpt that we gathered from a optometrist resume, you'll understand why: "optometrists must clearly explain eye care instructions to their patients, as well as answer patients’ questions." According to resumes we found, speaking skills can be used by a optometrist in order to "represented bar applicants in proceedings brought by attorney regulation counsel before board of law examiners. "

While it may not be the most important skill, we found that many optometrist duties rely on detail oriented. This example from a optometrist explains why: "optometrists must ensure that patients receive appropriate treatment and that medications and prescriptions are accurate." This resume example is just one of many ways optometrists are able to utilize detail oriented: "provided medically oriented comprehensive eye exams. "

See the full list of optometrist skills.

After discovering the most helpful skills, we moved onto what kind of education might be helpful in becoming an optometrist. We found that 30.1% of optometrists have graduated with a bachelor's degree and 1.8% of people in this position have earned their master's degrees. While most optometrists have a college degree, you may find it's also true that generally it's possible to be successful in this career with only a high school degree. In fact, our research shows that one out of every five optometrists were not college graduates.

Those optometrists who do attend college, typically earn either optometry degrees or biology degrees. Less commonly earned degrees for optometrists include business degrees or medical assisting services degrees.

Once you're ready to become an optometrist, you should explore the companies that typically hire optometrists. According to optometrist resumes that we searched through, optometrists are hired the most by Luxottica, Walmart, and Vision Service Plan. Currently, Luxottica has 390 optometrist job openings, while there are 178 at Walmart and 56 at Vision Service Plan.

But if you're interested in companies where you might earn a high salary, optometrists tend to earn the biggest salaries at Medical Associates Clinic, Avera McKennan Fitness Center, and Mayo Clinic. Take Medical Associates Clinic for example. The median optometrist salary is $321,076. At Avera McKennan Fitness Center, optometrists earn an average of $260,691, while the average at Mayo Clinic is $257,711. You should take into consideration how difficult it might be to secure a job with one of these companies.

View more details on optometrist salaries across the United States.

The three companies that hire the most prestigious optometrists are:

What Eye Clinic Managers Do

In this section, we compare the average optometrist annual salary with that of an eye clinic manager. Typically, eye clinic managers earn a $71,650 higher salary than optometrists earn annually.

Even though optometrists and eye clinic managers have vast differences in their careers, a few of the skills required to do both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require patient care, customer service, and medical records in the day-to-day roles.

There are some key differences in responsibilities as well. For example, an optometrist responsibilities require skills like "diagnosis," "diagnostic tests," "visual acuity," and "pre." Meanwhile a typical eye clinic manager has skills in areas such as "cpt," "follow-up appointments," "staff members," and "eye exams." This difference in skills reveals how truly different these two careers really are.

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 35.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

What Are The Duties Of an Eye Specialist?

Now we're going to look at the eye specialist profession. On average, eye specialists earn a $52,566 lower salary than optometrists a year.

Not everything about these jobs is different. Take their skills, for example. Optometrists and eye specialists both include similar skills like "patient care," "customer service," and "diagnostic tests" on their resumes.

But both careers also use different skills, according to real optometrist resumes. While optometrist responsibilities can utilize skills like "diagnosis," "pre," "glaucoma," and "safety factors," some eye specialists use skills like "surgery," "dr," "insurance forms," and "surgical procedures."

On the topic of education, eye specialists earn similar levels of education than optometrists. In general, they're 0.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 35.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

How a Speech Pathologist Compares

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.

The third profession we take a look at is speech pathologist. On an average scale, these workers bring in lower salaries than optometrists. In fact, they make a $109,826 lower salary per year.

While looking through the resumes of several optometrists and speech pathologists we discovered that both professions have similar skills. These similarities include skills such as "patient care," "diagnosis," and "private practice," but they differ when it comes to other required skills.

As mentioned, these two careers differ between other skills that are required for performing the work exceedingly well. For example, gathering from optometrists resumes, they are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "diagnostic tests," "visual acuity," and "pre." But a speech pathologist might have skills like "slp," "treatment plans," "communication," and "communication disorders."

Speech pathologists typically study at higher levels compared with optometrists. For example, they're 66.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 32.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Description Of a Chief, Optometry Service

Now, we'll look at chiefs, optometry service, who generally average a lower pay when compared to optometrists annual salary. In fact, the difference is about $91,808 per year.

According to resumes from both optometrists and chiefs, optometry service, some of the skills necessary to complete the responsibilities of each role are similar. These skills include "patient care," "oct," and "medical records. "

While some skills are shared by these professions, there are some differences to note. "diagnosis," "customer service," "diagnostic tests," and "visual acuity" are skills that have shown up on optometrists resumes. Additionally, chief, optometry service uses skills like pediatrics, eye injuries, health care, and diagnostic procedures on their resumes.

In general, chiefs, optometry service reach lower levels of education when compared to optometrists resumes. Chiefs, optometry service are 7.2% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 24.9% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Optometrist What They Do

Find The Best Optometrist Jobs For You