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Hi All,

 

I am currently in my second year of optometry school and have been having serious doubts about my choice to become an optometrist for the past year. I have continued with school because I wanted to be sure in my decision to leave before doing so.. I have already made it half way through school and invested a decent amount of money. However I am now POSITIVE the profession is not for me and am considering other options. I love the patient care aspect of optometry, however what I hate is the feeling that I have to SELL products to my patients to make any money in the profession once I am done with school. The more I learn about the profession of optometry, the more I realize it is hard to find rewarding career opportunities within the field unless you want to own your own practice. I don't want to own my own practice, and I don't want to work at Walmart or Lenscrafters or the like for the rest of my life pushing products. I want to work in a clinic or a hospital working directly with patients, not selling products, even if it may mean making less money. I think PA school would be a wonderful option for me, given I already know I like the health care field... just not optometry.

 

I am just curious as to what those who have been through the PA application/matriculation/graduation process think about this switch... do you think it would hurt my chances of being accepted anywhere. My undergrad GPA (cumulative and science) is reasonably competitive I believe (3.5).

For those who have just finished school, what are the career opportunities like? Were you able to find a position quickly in an area you wanted to be in?

I am obviously going to shadow some PAs, and talk to as many as possible before making the final call to go to PA school because I don't want to make the same mistake I did with optometry, but either way I am not going to finish optometry school because I know it just isn't for me.

 

Any input from those who have been in a similar situation or have any constructive insight would be much appreciated! Thanks for your time!

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Hi All,

 

I am currently in my second year of optometry school and have been having serious doubts about my choice to become an optometrist for the past year. I have continued with school because I wanted to be sure in my decision to leave before doing so.. I have already made it half way through school and invested a decent amount of money. However I am now POSITIVE the profession is not for me and am considering other options. I love the patient care aspect of optometry, however what I hate is the feeling that I have to SELL products to my patients to make any money in the profession once I am done with school. The more I learn about the profession of optometry, the more I realize it is hard to find rewarding career opportunities within the field unless you want to own your own practice. I don't want to own my own practice, and I don't want to work at Walmart or Lenscrafters or the like for the rest of my life pushing products. I want to work in a clinic or a hospital working directly with patients, not selling products, even if it may mean making less money. I think PA school would be a wonderful option for me, given I already know I like the health care field... just not optometry.

 

I am just curious as to what those who have been through the PA application/matriculation/graduation process think about this switch... do you think it would hurt my chances of being accepted anywhere. My undergrad GPA (cumulative and science) is reasonably competitive I believe (3.5).

For those who have just finished school, what are the career opportunities like? Were you able to find a position quickly in an area you wanted to be in?

I am obviously going to shadow some PAs, and talk to as many as possible before making the final call to go to PA school because I don't want to make the same mistake I did with optometry, but either way I am not going to finish optometry school because I know it just isn't for me.

 

Any input from those who have been in a similar situation or have any constructive insight would be much appreciated! Thanks for your time!

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Hi All,

 

I am currently in my second year of optometry school and have been having serious doubts about my choice to become an optometrist for the past year. I have continued with school because I wanted to be sure in my decision to leave before doing so.. I have already made it half way through school and invested a decent amount of money. However I am now POSITIVE the profession is not for me and am considering other options. I love the patient care aspect of optometry, however what I hate is the feeling that I have to SELL products to my patients to make any money in the profession once I am done with school. The more I learn about the profession of optometry, the more I realize it is hard to find rewarding career opportunities within the field unless you want to own your own practice. I don't want to own my own practice, and I don't want to work at Walmart or Lenscrafters or the like for the rest of my life pushing products. I want to work in a clinic or a hospital working directly with patients, not selling products, even if it may mean making less money. I think PA school would be a wonderful option for me, given I already know I like the health care field... just not optometry.

 

I am just curious as to what those who have been through the PA application/matriculation/graduation process think about this switch... do you think it would hurt my chances of being accepted anywhere. My undergrad GPA (cumulative and science) is reasonably competitive I believe (3.5).

For those who have just finished school, what are the career opportunities like? Were you able to find a position quickly in an area you wanted to be in?

I am obviously going to shadow some PAs, and talk to as many as possible before making the final call to go to PA school because I don't want to make the same mistake I did with optometry, but either way I am not going to finish optometry school because I know it just isn't for me.

 

Any input from those who have been in a similar situation or have any constructive insight would be much appreciated! Thanks for your time!

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if you love eyes have you thought about the MD/DO route and doing ophthalmology? not a lot of PAs working in ophtho...

as to your other question there are plenty of jobs for PAs but you need to be flexible on location/specialty/salary. you can likely get 2 but not 3 as a new grad.

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  • Moderator

if you love eyes have you thought about the MD/DO route and doing ophthalmology? not a lot of PAs working in ophtho...

as to your other question there are plenty of jobs for PAs but you need to be flexible on location/specialty/salary. you can likely get 2 but not 3 as a new grad.

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  • Moderator

if you love eyes have you thought about the MD/DO route and doing ophthalmology? not a lot of PAs working in ophtho...

as to your other question there are plenty of jobs for PAs but you need to be flexible on location/specialty/salary. you can likely get 2 but not 3 as a new grad.

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I work at a FQHC and we have optometrists in our clinics (not mine but one across town). I'm not sure if they love their job or not, but I guarantee you they are not pushing products. They see a LOT of diabetic/hypertensive patients with our pt demographic. All our pts who are diabetic get free eye exams. I'm sure they don't make as much as other places, but my salary as a PA is not too bad compared to the other options in town, so maybe it is on par.

You might even qualify for loan repayment.

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I work at a FQHC and we have optometrists in our clinics (not mine but one across town). I'm not sure if they love their job or not, but I guarantee you they are not pushing products. They see a LOT of diabetic/hypertensive patients with our pt demographic. All our pts who are diabetic get free eye exams. I'm sure they don't make as much as other places, but my salary as a PA is not too bad compared to the other options in town, so maybe it is on par.

You might even qualify for loan repayment.

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I work at a FQHC and we have optometrists in our clinics (not mine but one across town). I'm not sure if they love their job or not, but I guarantee you they are not pushing products. They see a LOT of diabetic/hypertensive patients with our pt demographic. All our pts who are diabetic get free eye exams. I'm sure they don't make as much as other places, but my salary as a PA is not too bad compared to the other options in town, so maybe it is on par.

You might even qualify for loan repayment.

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Thanks everyone for the input. Joanna, would you mind sharing where you are located or PMing me? Do you know if the optometrists who work there have been practicing for a while or are younger, newer doctors? I just feel like there are not too many medically oriented jobs available for O.D.'s, as almost all of them I know are working at a corporate location, at least part time. I'm sure I could find some type of job I liked if I finished optometry school, I'm just not really willing to relocate too far outside of my location. I would love to work in a hospital or clinic setting, even if it meant making less money than being an eye doc at Lenscrafters... I'm really not crazy about eyeballs to be honest. It just seems to me like PA graduates that I have talked to are enjoying being able to have flexibility on where they work and what avenue they take with their career. I feel like being a PA would just provide me with more options than optometry would. Any recent PA grads out there or anyone who is more familiar with the field than I am that could comment about what the job market is like (especially in the midwest) would be really helpful.

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Thanks everyone for the input. Joanna, would you mind sharing where you are located or PMing me? Do you know if the optometrists who work there have been practicing for a while or are younger, newer doctors? I just feel like there are not too many medically oriented jobs available for O.D.'s, as almost all of them I know are working at a corporate location, at least part time. I'm sure I could find some type of job I liked if I finished optometry school, I'm just not really willing to relocate too far outside of my location. I would love to work in a hospital or clinic setting, even if it meant making less money than being an eye doc at Lenscrafters... I'm really not crazy about eyeballs to be honest. It just seems to me like PA graduates that I have talked to are enjoying being able to have flexibility on where they work and what avenue they take with their career. I feel like being a PA would just provide me with more options than optometry would. Any recent PA grads out there or anyone who is more familiar with the field than I am that could comment about what the job market is like (especially in the midwest) would be really helpful.

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