Advice Column

Advice Going into OD 1

By Kirsten Ellis 07.26.22

To those students going into OD 1, here are some words of advice, study tips and recommendations to help you transition into optometry school. Print this note and keep it nearby as a reference as you prepare for this new chapter of your life. Reach out to those of us just ahead of you. We’re all in this together!

Words from Current Students:

  • Be active in your education. Be organized, be on time and pay attention!
  • Don’t skip class. You will fall behind.
  • Be kind to your classmates. You’re all in the same boat trying to accomplish the same goal.
  • You have a whole community of support, so always ask for help and never be afraid to ask for guidance.
  • Find your routine and stick with it. Routine with study time, exercise, and social life.
  • Stay true to yourself. Everyone will struggle but no one has your experiences, your character, and your story. Use it to your advantage because it has led you this far.
  • Time management is IMPORTANT.
  • Utilize people and resources.
  • Comparing yourself to others is inevitable but absolutely unproductive.
  • Learn how to take notes properly and effectively.
  • Study daily and effectively.
  • Have coping mechanisms ready for your stress. Find ways to de-stress daily to reset your mind.
  • Take everything day by day.

STUDY TIPS

  • Study on nights you don’t think you need to.
  • Repetition and handwriting annotation on Power Points can be helpful.
  • DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. Study daily & ask questions!
  • Your study style might change from what you did in undergrad.
  • Do what is best for you – it doesn’t have to be the way everyone else studies.
  • Go over the material at LEAST three times. Quiz yourself off each slide without looking.  Anki is a great tool.
  • Make a schedule for yourself. Keep yourself accountable and give yourself breaks!
  • Passion Planner helped me schedule everything out by half hour increments!
  • Use active recall/retention methods like brain dumping, blank charts/tables, making your own practice tests, and so many others.
  • 48-hour period! Review a new lecture within the 48-hour period to solidify what you learned in class.
  • Don’t neglect your sleep!
  • Stay up to date on studying! Do a little bit each day for each subject!

TRANSITIONING INTO OPTOMETRY SCHOOL

  • Know what your stress relievers are & make time for them in your schedule.
  • Find a group of friends and create a support system of people who are going through the same thing you are.
  • Move in early, especially if it is a new city. Take time to fully move in, get acquainted to your new surroundings, and establish a routine before you start!
  • Know that we are all overwhelmed and it is normal. Make friends and try to talk to everyone. It feels good to know so many others are in the same boat, and you aren’t alone.
  • Be organized with planner and calendars.
  • Lean into family support, friends, and maintain hobbies.
  • Learn what your strengths and weaknesses are academically. Be able to analyze your own self and use resources!
  • A good group of friends can help keep you on track, hold you accountable, and keep you sane when things feel overwhelming.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  • Get an iPad with notability.
  • Get involved! Four years will fly by, so explore your school clubs, volunteer, and go to conferences whenever you can!
  • Don’t be afraid to lean on your classmates whether asking them for help or practicing clinical skills.
  • Recognize the importance of understanding concepts and not just memorizing. Everything comes back so understanding the material will always help you in the long run.
  • Remember why you started and where you want to be in four years. Never give up!
  • Make condensed study guides for each exam. Practice your clinical skills as often as possible!
  • Always go to exam reviews. Even if you did great, going to see your professor to see what you missed will help you retain information long term and even maintain for the final.
  • Figure out how you learn and retain information the best.
  • Find your own pace and make sure to stay organized.
  • Have a strong support system – friends, family, classmates, mentors, and faculty
  • Make the best of your four years in optometry school!
  • Know you are doing this for yourself, your community, and your future patients!

 

Advocacy

So, what’s your role again?

By Kirsten Ellis 07.22.22

Optometry is not a relatively new profession in the United States. In fact, the American Optometric Association that we now know today was founded in 1898. The first state law recognizing optometry as a profession was in 1901 in Minnesota, with all states having an optometric practice law by 1921.

Even given the rich history of optometry as a profession in the United States, I still find myself often getting asked questions about the “role” optometrists play in today’s modern health care system.

I get it, there’s a lot of confusion about what and who is involved in eye care in 2022. It can be difficult to keep track of all the names/roles associated with eye care. It also probably doesn’t help that these jobs all sound and look alike on paper. Explaining the difference between an optometrist, ophthalmologist and optician can be tiresome at times, but needed.

Questions I get often are:

“So, you do surgery?” Well, that depends on the state.

Or “You fix glasses, right?” I can, but that’s often done by more skilled opticians.

Lastly, “So you just do glasses and contacts then?” Also, definitely not true based on my two years of optometry school so far. Optometrists are involved in primary, comprehensive, optical, and medical eye care.

The best piece of advice I have received in optometry school so far is that the human eyes are a window into the rest of the human body. I have found that to be true so far in my rigorous training. I’ve learned practical skills ranging from taking blood pressure, refraction and to how to read medical imaging scans involving all the structures of the eyes and brain. The eyes may be the window, but there is always a bigger picture of my patient’s overall health.

So going forward, I happily answer these questions and try my best to explain all the different ways optometrists can help improve anyone’s overall health. Thus, the best way to advocate for my patient’s health is to advocate on behalf of them, and the role optometrists can play in the health care system. I encourage all optometry students or practicing optometrists to join your school, state or national optometric organization. Advocate, advocate, advocate and make a difference.

Student Experience

Reflections

By Kirsten Ellis 07.22.22

We’re all familiar with the optical phenomenon of a reflection; a wavefront enters a system, bounces off a reflecting surface and travels back to the medium from which it came. Reflection has multiple meanings, though, and to me it has been one of the most important words in my life. A reflection is so much more than something that I look at in the mirror every morning. It is a view that is deeper into an individual than any gonio or fundus lens can achieve. To me, a reflection is a glance at the characteristics that someone possesses that remind me of myself. For example, when I see my younger cousins being playful and competitive with each other, I see those traits as a reflection of my younger self.

My name is Tim Davis, and I am a second-year optometry student at the University of Houston College of Optometry. I am originally from Columbus, Ohio. I grew up in Columbus city limits and attended public school for the first couple of years of my life. In the third grade, my family moved from the city to the suburbs. I remember the adjustment that I had to make in my life, trying to fit into a new environment and make new friends. Little did I know at the time, this transition into the suburbs would allow me to meet my now best friends and make a connection to the greatest reflection that I’ve ever encountered in my life. One of my best friend’s mothers happened to be an optometrist, one that I saw a reflection of myself in. In her, I saw myself and all my dreams and aspirations standing before me as a proud Black doctor. As I got older, I understood the value of being connected to her more and more, and having her guidance and mentorship has been truly invaluable in my life. The exposure that I was able to get to the field of optometry at a young age, and the representation and success that she had in her life is what I believe ignited the fire and sparked the passion inside of me to achieve greater.

As I write this piece now, I can’t help but think of all the reflections that I see when I fly back home to visit my family. All the potential that resides within each one of my little cousins and other family members to become doctors, lawyers, engineers or whatever they desire to become in their lives. This same potential extends past my family, it’s to my people as a whole.  It brings me anguish to realize the inequalities that plague the lives of many people who look like me, and this harsh reality has driven me to want to make a change. I want to bring awareness to these issues of inequality and to promote and enact change in the future so that more people who look like me can tap into their true potential. In an effort to inform the community, I have created a podcast entitled “Thoughts with TD the Future OD,” which highlights my personal experiences with diversity in the field, some of the systemic barriers that people like me face, and how we can move forward to diversify the field of optometry in the future.

In conclusion, I know that I am blessed to be in the position that I’m in right now in my life. I know that my achievements come on the heels of generations of hard work and sacrifice. I am dedicated to bringing awareness and enacting change in whatever way I can to make life better for the future generations. I want to look around and see more reflections every day, living their best lives and tapping into their true potential.

 

Link to my podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/31YOZGXBTzD8sKtZ1jlEhi?si=Ne4DBCxyTUqPlakJesvKIg

Advice Column

Optometry School: A Journey Best Taken with Others

By Kirsten Ellis 07.22.22

I found out that I was accepted into The Ohio State College of Optometry in the summer of 2019, and to say I was excited doesn’t begin to explain the joy, relief and eager anticipation I felt in that moment. During the last year of my undergraduate career at Ohio State, I would walk to class every day and pass the ongoing construction of the new optometry clinic, set to open 2020, the same year that I would start my optometric learning journey. Each day, I could see the continual progress on the building and understood the implication that it wouldn’t be long before I would be spending the next four years in those exam rooms. With a mindset of nervous optimism and continually looking forward at what was to come, it came as an especially significant surprise as to how quickly the last year of my undergraduate career went. In March of 2020, I hugged my roommates and friends goodbye for the spring break, unaware of the imminent pandemic and the implications it would have.

The life of quarantining and isolation that we quickly learned came to have a heavy impact on my first year of optometry school. Due to the nature of the pandemic, plans to live with my friends within walking distance of the school fell through, and I ended up moving in with my brother about a 25-minute drive away. I experienced my first year primarily through online lectures, and though the increased difficulty of classes was apparent, the biggest challenge came on a social level. I didn’t understand why I felt continuously drained, anxious and disconnected, and my response was just to study more. By the time the first year had ended, I looked back and realized my mistake in failing to reach out, to join clubs, to initiate conversation, and COVID-19, of course, had not helped.

Going into my second year, I was motivated to make sure I became more involved. I took on more leadership in Ocular Disease Club, joined other clubs like Low Vision and College of Optometrists in Vision Development and moved into a house with some of the closest friends I had made in optometry school thus far. I soon began to find my place within the Ohio State Optometry student base, and suddenly my journey began to feel less like an isolated one and one more within a community. My mental health had greatly improved, and I soon felt my physical health do so as well. Hobbies such as running, cooking and playing basketball that I had not done at all in my first year reemerged in the second. Academically, I gained a new sense of understanding as I began to engage more in group studying and found enjoyment communicating and comparing our biggest takeaways from each lecture and clinic session with friends. I felt as though my optimism for the material and curiosity to learn had only grown.

 

Although I don’t regret the eager anticipation I had on those undergrad walks passing the clinic, I do wish I had placed a bit more time into understanding why I was in such a position in the first place. I had made sure that my undergraduate career was not a journey I took alone, but instead surrounded by those who wanted to see me succeed. Optometry school is certainly challenging, but is without a doubt rewarding as well, especially when it is a process that can be shared with others. The importance in having a support system, friends and family who can go through the process with you, riding the highs and helping to lift you from the lows, cannot be overstated.