Optometrist

You would examine people’s eyes to check their vision and decide if they need glasses or contact lenses. You’d also look for defects, injuries and ill health.

You would:

• Test and measure a person’s vision using instruments and traditional tools like reading charts

• Make a diagnosis and advise what they should do

• Prescribe, fit and supply glasses or contact lenses

• Discuss the suitability and shape of frames for glasses

Using your knowledge of eye diseases, if you detect abnormalities - including conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure - you would refer the person to specialists or ophthalmologists (eye surgeons).

You could specialise in a particular area, such as:

• Working with children (paediatrics)

• Contact lenses – to advise people about using contact lenses

• Sports vision - to help sportspeople improve skills like estimating distances or hand-eye co-ordination

• Low vision – to show people how to use lighting and other aids so they can live with low vision that can’t be corrected with glasses or contact lenses

You’d need to be able to work with precision and understand mathematical and scientific information. It would be important to keep up to date with new techniques and instruments.

Some people may be nervous so you’d need to put them at ease. You may need to carefully and clearly explain the process and instructions, especially with children.

You can see more about this role in the National Health Service on the Optometrist page on the NHS Careers website.

• General Optical Council - Careers information

• NHS Education for Scotland – Training for the healthcare workforce including higher education and professional development

• Disclosure Scotland – more about the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme