Swapping the comfortable surroundings of a university classroom for the bright lights of a working practice can be a daunting prospect for any optometry student. After forming new friendships and getting to grips with the geography of your temporary home, you are sent to embark on a pre-registration year – something which can feel like a major shakeup.
It is widely believed that a placement year is a fantastic opportunity for students to test the knowledge they have gained at university. The chance to interact with patients and develop relationships is one of the key areas where aspiring optometrists are encouraged to use their initiative and evolve their own ‘style’. But, how great is the transition from the classroom to the practice and what can prospective students expect?
Starting out at a multiple
Gobi Sivalingam, now a qualified optometrist working at Specsavers Leatherhead, admits to experiencing a tough start to his pre-reg career. ‘At the beginning I didn’t want to speak to anyone. I just wanted to get in there and get out,’ he says. ‘I remember in my first week, thinking that I couldn’t work there. It was so different to London and I thought about finding somewhere else.’
While studying at Anglia Ruskin University, Sivalingam secured a placement with Specsavers Leatherhead after the multiple came to visit the Cambridge campus. ‘We gave them our location details, things like where we wanted to go and how far we wanted to travel,’ Sivalingam says.
At the time, Sivalingam intended to drive to work from his family home in West London. However, when circumstances changed and he was forced to get to the station for 6am each morning, the optometrist says he had to adapt quickly. ‘It was hard at first and very different. At university, you’re used to getting up at 10am, 11am, noon sometimes. But you get into your routine and, give it a week, you won’t complain about it,’ Sivalingam says.
Mistakes are part and parcel of the pre-reg year and Sivalingam admits to suffering his fair share of embarrassing moments. ‘In my first week of testing, I had a patient and I was feeling a bit ill at the time. I had the sniffles and I was trying to keep it in, but I kept sniffling and the patient said, “You’re ill, you can’t be doing that”. He kicked me out of my own test room and made me blow my nose. I left thinking that was rock bottom and I asked whether I could even do this?’ Sivalingam says.
The turning point of his pre-reg experience was learning to embrace his errors and not dwell on them. ‘If you can have a laugh about [your mistakes] and realise that you’re growing then it becomes much easier. I realised that I was not the finished product and I became humbler. From there on, we had a laugh about it,’ Sivalingam says.
As well as taking a more relaxed attitude, the optometrist says he should have spoken to his supervisor more during the opening stages. ‘I wish I used the first few months to ask a load of questions. The more questions you ask, the more annoying you are – the better,’ he says.
‘They will try and help you, but it’s a two-way street, so you have to make sure that you are available to be helped and they’ll be approachable,’ he adds.
Like Sivalingam, Ali-Raza Hassam chose to work in a multiple for his pre-reg year. He is currently three months into his placement at Specsavers Epsom and says it has been a gentle start to working life. ‘I expected it to be like this. I knew it would be a slow, gradual process and that I wasn’t going to have a couple of patients everyday straight away. You need to make sure you can do everything else before that and then build yourself up to a point where you have your own patients,’ he says.
Before starting his placement, Hassam says that he was looking forward to having more independence and the autonomy to make his own decisions without having someone there looking over his shoulder; he compares the two learning environments. ‘At university, you are sort of cocooned in this routine of having tests every fortnight. You’d have two tests a week and two contact lenses [fitting] every fortnight. Compared to four or five tests a day, four days a week, it’s quite a jump,’ he says.
Independent life
Lucinda Beardsmore, a student from Cardiff University, decided to take an independent route for her pre-reg year
Heading into her pre-reg at Hodd Barnes and Dickens in London, Beardsmore was unsure as to what would be waiting for her when she arrived. ‘Everyone was saying to me, “oh it’s so hard, it’s going to be the worst year of your life, you’re going to be so tired”, so I didn’t go in with great expectations,’ she says.
Lucinda Beardsmore
The trainee optom describes how she had to ‘get to grips’ with the routines of the store before she started testing. ‘In the first few weeks I wasn’t testing as they got me integrated into the store first. If I couldn’t use
the system, I couldn’t perform a quality test. But it was quite helpful as I started off slowly and then gradually built up,’ Beardsmore says.
Despite being overwhelmed by the reality of starting full-time work, the Cardiff student says a good rapport with her team really helped her to acclimatise to her new surroundings. She explains they regularly meet up outside of work: ‘It’s quite nice to spend some time outside of work talking about things that aren’t work-related. We all get along on a personal level as well as on a professional level, so it makes work a lot easier if you’re friends.’
Variety is one of the main benefits of working at an independent practice, she says. Beardsmore describes how she feels more than a ‘testing monkey’. ‘I don’t just test, that’s not my role. I’m speaking to patients from when they come in, I’m dispensing. I’m even ordering lenses,’ she says.
Almost at the end of her experience, Beardsmore’s advice to prospective pre-reg students is clear. ‘Just don’t stress out. There’s no need to stress as there is always someone there to help you. Everyone has made the mistake you are about to make, so don’t worry and don’t take it too seriously. If something goes wrong it can be hard not to take it to heart, but just try not to do that. Stay calm, everything will be all right in the end,’ she says.
The hospital setting
Aarti Dua is a pre-reg student at Moorfields Eye Hospital and, despite spending eight months in the position, she reveals the job is still throwing surprises at her. ‘There is always something new every day where you think you need a bit more help or insight as you’ve never come across it before. But I think that’s the nature of working in a hospital,’ she says.
Aarti Dua
Above all, the Cardiff optometry student chose to work in a hospital to pursue her interests in the clinical side of the degree. ‘I find it a lot more interesting in a hospital just because of the variety of things that you see. Obviously, you still see that in community practices, but you get to learn a bit more about how it’s managed,’ she says.
With only a few months left of her pre-reg experience, Dua says that getting ahead of the game is very important. ‘Go through the competencies and the handbook when you get it, so you know the sort of patients that you have to look out for. If you suddenly see a patient that has something that you need to have for a competency, then you can make sure your record is in great shape.
‘There have been a few times when I have seen a patient that would have been ideal for a competency in visit three. But I’ve looked back [through my notes] and seen I’ve missed out this or not recorded that and I’ve had to find another one. Knowing what you need will make a lot of difference and will make your life easier,’ she says.