Optometrists

• Summary

• Details

Work Activities

• Provide patients undergoing eye surgeries, such as cataract and laser vision correction, with pre- and post-operative care.
• Prescribe, supply, fit and adjust eyeglasses, contact lenses, and other vision aids.
• Consult with and refer patients to ophthalmologist or other health care practitioner if additional medical treatment is determined necessary.
• Prescribe, supply, fit and adjust eyeglasses, contact lenses, and other vision aids.
• Prescribe medications to treat eye diseases if state laws permit.
• Provide vision therapy and low-vision rehabilitation.
• Prescribe therapeutic procedures to correct or conserve vision.
• Analyze test results and develop a treatment plan.
• Analyze test results and develop a treatment plan.
• Consult with and refer patients to ophthalmologist or other health care practitioner if additional medical treatment is determined necessary.
• Examine eyes, using observation, instruments, and pharmaceutical agents, to determine visual acuity and perception, focus, and coordination and to diagnose diseases and other abnormalities, such as glaucoma or color blindness.
• Remove foreign bodies from the eye.
• Educate and counsel patients on contact lens care, visual hygiene, lighting arrangements, and safety factors.

Skills

• Negotiation
  • Bringing people together to solve differences.
• Persuasion
  • Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
• Systems Evaluation
  • Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
• Science
  • Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
• Active Learning
  • Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
• Monitoring
  • Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
• Technology Design
  • Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
• Service Orientation
  • Looking for ways to help people.
• Writing
  • Writing things for co-workers or customers.
• Instructing
  • Teaching people how to do something.
• Time Management
  • Managing your time and the time of other people.
• Quality Control Analysis
  • Testing how well a product or service works.
• Operations Analysis
  • Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
• Equipment Maintenance
  • Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
• Management of Financial Resources
  • Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
• Equipment Selection
  • Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
• Reading Comprehension
  • Reading work-related information.
• Programming
  • Writing computer programs.
• Judgment and Decision Making
  • Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
• Coordination
  • Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
• Management of Personnel Resources
  • Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
• Complex Problem Solving
  • Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
• Repairing
  • Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
• Operation and Control
  • Using equipment or systems.
• Speaking
  • Talking to others.
• Management of Material Resources
  • Managing equipment and materials.
• Social Perceptiveness
  • Understanding people's reactions.
• Operations Monitoring
  • Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
• Installation
  • Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
• Troubleshooting
  • Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
• Active Listening
  • Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
• Mathematics
  • Using math to solve problems.
• Critical Thinking
  • Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
• Learning Strategies
  • Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
• Systems Analysis
  • Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.

Abilities

• Dynamic Strength
  • Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
• Gross Body Coordination
  • Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
• Gross Body Equilibrium
  • Keeping your balance or staying upright.
• Problem Sensitivity
  • Noticing when problems happen.
• Night Vision
  • Seeing at night or under low light.
• Wrist-Finger Speed
  • Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
• Category Flexibility
  • Grouping things in different ways.
• Mathematical Reasoning
  • Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
• Visualization
  • Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
• Sound Localization
  • Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
• Stamina
  • Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
• Extent Flexibility
  • Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
• Selective Attention
  • Paying attention to something without being distracted.
• Deductive Reasoning
  • Using rules to solve problems.
• Perceptual Speed
  • Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
• Time Sharing
  • Doing two or more things at the same time.
• Speed of Limb Movement
  • Quickly moving your arms and legs.
• Hearing Sensitivity
  • Telling the difference between sounds.
• Trunk Strength
  • Using your lower back and stomach.
• Memorization
  • Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
• Speed of Closure
  • Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
• Oral Comprehension
  • Listening and understanding what people say.
• Visual Color Discrimination
  • Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
• Control Precision
  • Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
• Flexibility of Closure
  • Seeing hidden patterns.
• Dynamic Flexibility
  • Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
• Reaction Time
  • Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
• Static Strength
  • Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
• Written Comprehension
  • Reading and understanding what is written.
• Oral Expression
  • Communicating by speaking.
• Written Expression
  • Communicating by writing.
• Fluency of Ideas
  • Coming up with lots of ideas.
• Originality
  • Creating new and original ideas.
• Spatial Orientation
  • Knowing where things are around you.
• Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Keeping your arm or hand steady.
• Explosive Strength
  • Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
• Speech Recognition
  • Recognizing spoken words.
• Speech Clarity
  • Speaking clearly.
• Inductive Reasoning
  • Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
• Information Ordering
  • Ordering or arranging things.
• Auditory Attention
  • Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
• Manual Dexterity
  • Holding or moving items with your hands.
• Far Vision
  • Seeing details that are far away.
• Peripheral Vision
  • Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
• Depth Perception
  • Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
• Number Facility
  • Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
• Near Vision
  • Seeing details up close.
• Glare Sensitivity
  • Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
• Finger Dexterity
  • Putting together small parts with your fingers.
• Multilimb Coordination
  • Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
• Response Orientation
  • Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
• Rate Control
  • Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.

Knowledge

• Sales and Marketing
  • Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Sociology and Anthropology
  • Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
• Philosophy and Theology
  • Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
• Biology
  • Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• English Language
  • Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Chemistry
  • Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
• Medicine and Dentistry
  • Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Education and Training
  • Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Customer and Personal Service
  • Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Computers and Electronics
  • Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Therapy and Counseling
  • Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
• Mathematics
  • Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Fine Arts
  • Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
• Design
  • Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• Communications and Media
  • Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
• Physics
  • Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
• Administration and Management
  • Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Economics and Accounting
  • Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
• Personnel and Human Resources
  • Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
• Psychology
  • Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• Transportation
  • Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
• Public Safety and Security
  • Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Building and Construction
  • Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
• Mechanical
  • Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
• Foreign Language
  • Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
• Food Production
  • Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
• Geography
  • Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
• Administrative
  • Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
• Production and Processing
  • Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• History and Archeology
  • Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
• Telecommunications
  • Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
• Law and Government
  • Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Engineering and Technology
  • Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.

Education

Education

Doctoral or professional degree

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

No on-the-job training

Education and Training Opportunities

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Education and Training Opportunities

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Pay

Washington Annual Salary

157650/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

75.79/hr

Washington Employment Trends

Currently Employed

1,800

Yearly Projected Openings

140

Personality

Investigative: People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out. They do well at jobs that need:

• Attention to Detail
• Concern for Others
• Dependability
• Integrity
• Analytical Thinking
• Cooperation

Tools

• Binocular vision test sets
• Blood pressure cuff kits
• Color perception testing lanterns
• Corneal topographers
• Depth perception apparatus
• Desktop computers
• Eye charts or vision cards
• Eye occluders
• Fundus cameras
• Keratometers
• Lens measuring equipment
• Loupes
• Medical acoustic stethoscopes
• Notebook computers
• Ophthalmic eye test lenses
• Ophthalmic instrument table accessories
• Ophthalmic irrigation or aspiration supplies
• Ophthalmic lachrymal probes
• Ophthalmic lens holder
• Ophthalmic lensometers
• Ophthalmic prisms
• Ophthalmic retinoscope accessories
• Ophthalmic retinoscopes
• Ophthalmic slit lamps
• Ophthalmic surgical knives or blades
• Ophthalmic tonometers
• Ophthalmic transilluminators
• Ophthalmoscopes or otoscopes or scope sets
• Opticians tools
• Personal computers
• Phoropter units
• Photo attachments for microscopes
• Scleral shells
• Thickness measuring devices

Technology

• Accounting software
• Calendar and scheduling software
• Data base user interface and query software
• Internet browser software
• Medical software
• Spreadsheet software
• Word processing software