Kurt Cobain is quoted as saying, ‘Practice makes perfect; but nobody’s perfect, so why practice?’ Surely, practice makes better and more practice makes better still.
It is that time of year when the importance of regular practice becomes very apparent in my world. As pre-reg optometrists reach the end of their stage 1 experience, they have to demonstrate competence at contact tonometry. Every year, those who have practised Goldmann many times are easily signed off, while those who have just completed the barest minimum rarely appear competent with the technique.
Also, the longer someone waits to ‘take the plunge’, the more daunting the task appears. I once supervised a pre-reg (who will remain nameless, but now heads an optometry department) who turned up for work one day to find the non-contact tonometer had broken. We used a Perkins all day on everyone and, very soon, she was excellent at the technique. In recent months, we have all been hearing about the benefits of introducing myopia management into our skillset. Now is the time for many of us to have our ‘take the plunge’ moment.
On a similar theme, I was lucky enough to chair a Johnson & Johnson supported roundtable last week that focused on the contact lens correction of presbyopia. Most participants confirmed how they had grown in confidence dealing with presbyopia once they themselves first needed a reading correction. I recognised this, just as I also remember feeling more confident with paediatric cases once the Harvey brood had appeared.
We are asked, rightly, to recognise our limitations and to defer to others with greater experience or qualification. However, we also need to continue to grow and develop our own skillset and this requires experience. Get the balance wrong and too many colleagues will default to their comfort zone, one devoid of once standard practices.