Optician Award-winning Clare Pearce always knew she wanted to work in healthcare and help people, which eventually led her to optometry. As a wearer of spectacles from a young age, she was familiar with going to the opticians and it fit with her criteria.
Pearce went to the University of Cardiff and took a job in her third year at Specsavers in Bridgend where she also completed her pre-registration year. She says her eight years at Specsavers was a great experience and served her well because of how busy the practice was.
‘Working in a multiple makes your clinical skills smoother quite quickly. I saw a big range of pathology, which is great when you’re fresh out of university and it was helpful to work with other experienced optometrists.’
However, the aspect of optometry that Pearce loves is building relationships with patients and she felt that could be better achieved by owning her own independent practice.
‘They are my patients and they know when they come here that they’re going to see me. I love that way of working. You get to know them and about their needs and, therefore, I’m able to look after them to the best of my ability. You’ve got that basis of knowledge already when you get to know people,’ she explains.
Pearce knew that if she left Specsavers, she would want to do something different and practice ownership had been on her radar for a long time. After viewing a few potential locations, a site at a medical centre in Pentwyn became available that Pearce and practice co-owner Francesca Blackmore envisioned as a hub for patient care with a strong clinical focus.
She explains: ‘There’s a massive amount of ‘ignorance is bliss’ before you set up. You have a rose-tinted view of how it is going to be. The main thing is to take it one step at a time but if you know everything at the beginning, you will never do anything in life. We opened our doors and I found out I was pregnant on the same day.’
A balancing act
Over the next six months, Pearce and Blackmore (pictured right) grew their new independent optical practice. Throughout Pearce’s pregnancy, patients got to know the duo personally before she gave birth to twins. ‘That’s a massive part of being independent. It is about Francesca and me being the face of our business,’ she says.
A locum provided cover while Pearce went on maternity leave and she eventually came back to the practice on a part-time basis, which Pearce says she did as a mum first and optometrist second.
‘My girls are my priority in life. Not everybody feels the same, but that’s the way it is for me. I was part-time when they were little and it’s worked hand in hand with how my business has grown. As it has got busier, the girls have gone to nursery or school. It’s important to make sure that your work-life balance is correct because, as cliché as it is, my kids are not going to grow up again,’ she says.
Pearce feels fortunate to work in an independent setting where she can fit all elements of her life in and believes that finding a work-life balance improves both elements. ‘I love working with my patients and it’s because I am able to also love the other side of my life, which is being with my family and doing my hobbies,’ she explains.
Pearce channels her creativity by making clothes on her sewing machine and challenges herself physically with open water swimming. She says: ‘We have to look after ourselves. If I’m burnt out when coming into work and I don’t like what I do, my patients are not going to get optimal care and that’s no good.’
Visual cues
Pearce says she has high standards of herself that is reflected in the level of clinical care provided at her practice. She has upskilled by completing the low vision and medical retina qualifications and has her sights set on glaucoma or independent prescribing.
Pearce pursues these training opportunities because she does not want to get left behind and wants to ensure patients are receiving up-to-date care. ‘Clinical excellence is making sure that your knowledge is current and not letting your knowledge become stale. We should challenge ourselves. It’s about not letting things slip through the net and doing the best that we can for our patients,’ Pearce comments.
She sets herself apart clinically with these qualifications but has taken additional steps to improve communication with patients in practice. She uses British Sign Language and says learning it has enabled her to chat with patients in their first language. ‘I had a new patient recently who was recommended by the local vicar. They were able to experience the whole process, from the sight test to dispensing, in their language,’ Pearce explains.
The practice is also dementia-friendly and Pearce says it is important to help these patients maintain a degree of independence, particularly as dementia becomes more prevalent with a growing, ageing population.
‘We’ve had carers of patients with dementia come in and say they didn’t know they could have an eye test done. People see the subjective side of the sight test and think, “Well, they would not be able to do that or answer history and symptoms.” When we started to think about how to adapt to be dementia-friendly, we realised a lot of it is not difficult to do.
‘Clear signage in your practice, thinking about the lighting, having a quiet area where a patient can sit if they find it a bit stressful and communication is important too. I’ve made some cue cards that patients can take away and be reminded of what I told them. Loads of patients, dementia aside, come out of a sight test and they remember something completely different.
It is hard for anybody to remember or retain a lot of information and even harder when you have dementia. So, that’s where we use the cue cards,’ she says.
Pearce has also adapted the eye examination for patients who have additional needs, such as patients with autism or those who are non-verbal. She explains this requires thinking outside the box: ‘As an optometrist, you can be so routine. When you have a patient with additional needs, you might need to totally rethink it. It is important and I think it’s all achievable. It’s not a specialist skill per se.’
Sourcing support
Pearce says the biggest challenge in her career was when she left Specsavers and started a practice from scratch. The site that became the Pentwyn practice was an empty unit sandwiched between a dentist, a GP and a pharmacy.
‘We had zero patients. People need time to get to know you and develop trust in your clinical skills and judgment. We’ve been there for nearly 11 years now. To go from working in a team of optometrists to working on your own is a challenge. At Specsavers, there’s always somebody you can ask or say, “Can you can have a look at this? I’m not sure what this is.”
It’s important when working on your own to be safe and confident in your ability. I’ve created a group of colleagues that I can ask. We’re all female, independent practice owners that work clinically on our own. It is about making sure you ask for help when you need it. I think that’s really key in our profession.’
When Pearce and Blackmore opened in Pentwyn, they wanted to make sure people had access to eye care that was clinically strong. It was the same story when they took over an additional practice in Llanishen 18 months ago.
Pearce explains: ‘I want to make sure that every patient is looked after and there aren’t any barriers to people accessing that. Whether that is a deaf patient, a patient with dementia or additional needs. Everybody should be able to access that and have equal opportunities. That’s developed quite a lot since we opened.’
It was never the plan to open a second site, especially as their Pentwyn practice was successful and afforded them a vital work-life balance, but this was an opportunity they could not ignore.
‘The Llanishen practice has been here for about 60 years. It was taken over four and a half years ago by a guy that I used to work with in Specsavers. His optometrist was the one that owned it prior to that. I think he found Covid difficult so tried to sell it but got messed around a little bit and then approached Francesca and I because he knew us.
He said, “Look, I’m going to close it, or do you want take it on?” Initially, we were like, “No, our work-life balance is great and we don’t need any more work.” By the end of the day, we convinced ourselves that we could make it work.’
They viewed it the next day and decided that the patients at the practice would still need to be looked after if it closed. ‘It is an unusual setup. It’s one practice split over two locations. Whenever we’ve thought if we should close one or the other, neither feels right because they both serve the area that they’re in.’
Pearce admits she and Blackmore were clueless about what practice ownership would entail, including what frames to stock, where to set prices and putting a value on clinical services.
‘It was a bit of trial and error when choosing lens companies to work with. Eventually, you find what you’re comfortable with. For an independent, it’s a challenge to be yourself. Don’t try to be Specsavers or attempt to compete with them because you can’t. It’s about being confident in your own identity,’ Pearce concludes.