An optometrist is a doctor who specializes in eye care. Such a person is responsible for administering an eye test that is used for diagnosing issues that a person might have with his or her eyes, like nearsightedness, farsightedness, focus, and eye coordination. Beyond the diagnosis, however, an optometrist has to provide an adequate solution for the issues. This usually involves some sort of corrective lenses in the form of glasses or contact lenses. Throughout the years, the need for these members of the medical world has grown significantly. Here we will look at some of the causes for the rising demands of optometrists.
As technology has improved, optometrists have changed the results of their diagnoses greatly. An optometrist can now tell someone to get corrective lenses or get laser surgery to treat their problems. This requires a new form of education for members of the field, making high quality eye care providers even harder to find. More technology yields even more diagnoses to understand, and so the demands of the job continue to pile up from year to year. As the population continues to grow, people will continue to have eye problems and will be in need of proper care. Thus demand progresses upward because the amount of patients does so.
The good news in all of this is that job outlook for an optometrist is quite high right now. Between 2008 and 2018, employment opportunities for optometrists are expected to grow by 24%. That means if someone starts his or her education now, he or she will have numerous jobs available upon graduation. The bigger generations are beginning to age and their eyesight is depleting. With that, the need for optometrists and the problems they must diagnose are both on the rise.
Many problems that an optometrist must diagnose under the needs of this aging population include glaucoma, cataract, and macular relapse.
The eye care field is improving every day to combat these issues and others, but that only means more work for optometrists. For those who are willing to take on the challenge, the chances for employment are massive in the future. Current members of this job sector are retiring every day, leaving openings galore for up and coming optometrists to take on the task at hand.
About a quarter of working optometrists are self-employed, and the remaining ones work in clinics, hospitals or in conjunction with other eye care professionals.
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