The AOP is always striving to represent our members’ interests in the best way we can. At the beginning of 2016 we asked members what they felt the key threats, challenges and opportunities were for the profession. The responses we received revealed many were concerned with the pressures felt within the workplace. Concerns raised included stress and salary depreciation among others, and we felt it was important to explore these further.
In response, we issued a competitive tender in the spring of 2016 for a qualitative and quantitative research project looking to understand the health, wellbeing and aspirations of the optometric workforce. We commissioned Aston University to conduct this research and a lead researcher has been appointed to deliver this under the supervision of Dr Hannah Bartlett, reader in optometry at Aston University. Aston will be presenting the final report in January 2017.
To date, the researcher has conducted a number of interviews and focus groups to refine the scope of the questionnaire, and these have been validated by the research team.
We will be making the survey available to AOP members from mid-November and it will be open for three weeks. The data collected will be anonymsied, and will include sections for employees and employers. AOP members will receive an email inviting them to take part.
If you are an AOP member we strongly urge you to make your views heard through this research – it takes no longer than 15-20 minutes to complete.
We hope to gain as many views as possible for this important piece of work, which has not been undertaken on this scale within the profession before. We aim to use the findings as an evidence base to highlight key issues in the optometric workforce.