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Your role as an optometrist
As a specialist in eye health, you'll find and correct people's vision problems.
Your role involves:
- testing people's eyes for eye health and vision problems
- prescribing medicines to support eye health
- prescribing corrective glasses, lenses or other vision aids
- checking for signs of eye disease or long term eye conditions.
How is an optometrist different to an orthoptist or ophthalmologist
Optometrists are experts in eye health. They do eye tests, prescribe corrective glasses and treat things like glaucoma and eye infections. Optometrists can prescribe medicine such as eye drops.
Orthoptists are allied health professionals that specialise in eye muscle movement disorders. That includes things like cross-eyed, lazy eye or double vision.
Ophthalmologists are medical doctors who specialise in eye care and surgery. They do things like cataract and laser eye surgery. You need to train for longer to become an ophthalmologist.
What your day might look like
You'll often work in a hospital, but you could also work in a community clinic or outreach location. You'll be seeing patients all day to help find and correct their vision problems. You may work independently or as part of a team to manage patients. You'll manage patients before and after eye surgery.
Your day will include things like:
- manage the care of eye conditions to avoid vision loss or eye surgery
- manage patients before eye surgery and follow them up
- using equipment to see and measure the inside of people's eyes
- testing people's vision with different corrective lenses to see which ones work best
- checking for early signs of poor eye health or degenerative conditions
- working with other health professionals and specialists to support eye care.
You'll work with patients of all ages. You could also specialise in areas like working with children, contact lenses or rehabilitation for people with low vision.
Read more about working as an optometrist on Your Career.
Qualifications
Master's or doctorate in optometry with therapeutic endorsement
Professional registration
Registered with the Optometry Board of Australia
Pay and benefits
Your pay rate and benefits will depend on your role and your pay point. In your first year you’ll start at health professional grade HP4, pay point 1. You’ll get a different rate if you’re in a higher level role.
We also offer:
- regular wage increases
- a superannuation rate of 12.75%
- a supportive workplace with flexible working arrangements
- several types of leave
- salary packaging
- help with ongoing professional development costs.
If you're moving to start a new job with us, you may be able to get help with moving and travel costs.
Rural and remote opportunities
You may also be able to get financial incentives and other benefits if you work in rural and remote areas.
Read about our opportunities for rural allied health careers.
Professional growth
Continuing professional development (CPD) is an essential part of being an optometrist. You'll have opportunities to build CPD points through things like:
- rural experience
- research
- access to education and training with the Clinical Skills Development Service and the Cunningham Centre.
Career paths
With more training and experience could move into advanced optometry roles. If you plan to do more study, ask your training provider if your past studies can count towards a higher qualification.