Insight on Becoming an Optometrist's Assistant

Presenter: Leana Kashtelyan, Public Health Science, Global Public Health Scholars

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For my practicum, I worked at VR Optical in Owings Mills, MD as an Executive Assistant to the Optometrist. Vision care is critically important to help prevent common eye diseases that could potentially cause vision loss or blindness, so working alongside the optometrist allowed me to grasp the true importance of vision care and annual visits to your optometrist. During my time working at VR Optical, I helped the doctor on the business side and medical side. I helped with scheduling appointments, billing vision insurance, and monitoring the waiting room. Additionally, I assisted the doctor with helping patients learn how to put in and take out contact lenses, which helped me gain patient care experience. After a year of working with the optometrist, I was able to gain the skill of rewriting prescriptions after patients lost their medications Looking back at everything I accomplished while working at the optical, I learned that language is a barrier to adequate health care and that it is difficult to run a practice on your own.