August traditionally used to be seen as ‘the quiet month’. The month when everybody went on holiday and as such things could be expected to slow down. If that is the case then August is surely the month to step back and take some time to reflect upon things.
It is also a time when many of us celebrate an anniversary of qualifying to become an optometrist. Now the longer we have been qualified the less relevant this may seem but maybe that should not be so for the newer members of our profession. Maybe as another year of experience has been chalked up the time has come to reflect on whether or not your career path is the one you really want to be on.
I well remember attending a large conference in America a few years ago and I was amazed at the massive number of young, fairly newly qualified optometrists who appeared at the equipment stands (or booths as they refer to them in the USA) in the breakout sessions. Here was a new generation of optometrists so very eager to set up their own independent practice. Not for them the tired old equipment.
They wanted the latest cutting edge technology to offer the highest standards to their patients. I took time to talk to a lot of these young optometrists and their joy and enthusiasm for having the chance to work in their own independent practice was truly infectious. The opportunity to be the decision-maker for how they would deliver care was so infectious.
These young optometrists, even in their short careers to date knew they would not be able to deliver the care they wanted to if they were held back by the demands of a head office. They wanted to be in charge of their own destiny. They wanted to work in the way they saw best and not in the ‘company way’.
Do we see this same move towards independent optometry in the UK? I think it is fair to say: ‘not at the moment’. However, it is interesting to note there are more and more young optometrists looking at this path for their careers. I was talking to an older independent optometrist the other day who was telling me of the problems they are having recruiting a new optometrist, even with a salary way over the average, and this is an excellent practice to work in.
It was interesting to be told that at interview some of the candidates were saying that although they were considering working in independent practice they were always being told by larger companies that independent practice was dying and that the future for optometry lay in the big companies and this caused them to doubt the wisdom of working in smaller independent practices. So is this true or not?
Well I can remember a time back in the 1980s when a very large company likened itself to an optical whale and proudly announced that it would be swallowing all the optical minnows and that was that. Interestingly it would appear the whale swam into shallow waters and beached itself because the independent sector remained strong while the whale died. Smaller independent organisations can adapt quicker to changing situations and hence, in the world today where things can change rapidly, small can be beautiful.
I accept that as a small employer things can seem tough. However, there are new ways of working where smaller businesses can acquire support from overarching support organisations. Undoubtedly the kick of leaving at the end of the day knowing, as you lock the door that the standards of care you can give are because of the clinical standards you have set, that the choice and range of goods and services are there because you want them to be, that the reason the patients walk through the door is not because they have been enticed by some catchy TV advert but because your reputation locally has led them to seek you out. There is no greater kick than that.
Independent optometry in the UK is flourishing despite what some in the corporate sector might hope. As optometry students learn more highly skilled clinical roles in their degrees they are beginning to see in the real world that so much of what they have learned is reduced to a refraction machine.
So many young optometrists are beginning to see that that is not what they want. Some choose to work in hospitals to achieve that clinical role but still many want to work in the community and are starting to see that running their own practice is what they really desire, deep down. We, as a profession, should encourage them. We should embrace those desires. It is good for us all.
And if this truly is the month for reflection maybe it is time for you to consider whether you are currently in the right place or whether working in a smaller independent environment is the place you really want to be.