View from the High Street: Supporting our pre-regs in their first steps into the wider world

August can be seen as ‘pre-registration optometrist month’. Like many practices, we will soon welcome a new pre-registration student, fresh from university and our existing pre-registration student prepares for her OSCEs.

I vividly remember my pre-registration year as I was fortunate to have a fantastic supervisor, who moulded me into the optometrist I am today. I made friends with all the practice team and still keep in touch with many of them now, years later. But it was a very steep learning curve.

My biggest lesson happened when the receptionist pointed out that I may have come out of university with a very good degree, but that made no difference to anyone else, as they all worked as a team. If the phone needed answering or a drink needed making we all helped each other, regardless of our job title.