Bill Harvey: He’s just a stereotype

Just a quick reminder to begin with. There are only a few weeks remaining until the end of the CET cycle, so you may want to know that we still have plenty of active CET exercises available online, including two interactive exercises.

I spoke recently about some peer review sessions with some newly qualified optometrists. One of the many subjects raised was how many people, both fellow staff members and patients, would comment on how young they were and, in some cases, ask if ‘a more mature staff member was available’.

I was surprised that this stereotyping still prevailed. In my humble experience, it is all too often those who have been qualified for many years that may develop a thick skin to new ideas and any questions over their clinical decisions and practices. Some years ago, I remember an audit aimed at identifying the underlying source of PD errors which identified the main culprits to be those with many years of PD rule use who perhaps too readily assumed they were accurate in their measurement.