MGT300

Niexter: A career as an Optometrist

By Yong Ee Ling, 15, Shah Alam, Selangor

2010/10/13

Leong Set Fee

I never really knew the difference between an optician and an optometrist.

Nor did I know that there were three main types of eye care profession. I was recently assigned to interview Leong Set Fee, an optometrist! Prior to the interview, I decided to Google to know more about this field.

There are three main types of eye care professions – optician, optometrist and ophthalmologist. According to Wikipedia, an optician is a health care practitioner who designs, fits and dispenses lenses for the correction of a person’s vision, while an optometrist is a health care profession concerned with eyes and related structures, as well as vision, visual systems, and vision information processing in humans. On the other hand, an ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems. Confused? Don’t worry, you’re not the only one… The days came and went, and before I knew it, the day has finally arrived. By then, my nervousness had sky rocket to a tremendous height. Surprisingly, it plummeted when the interview started. Leong, who was born in 1957 graduated from Glasgow College of Technology which is now called Glasgow Caledonia University. Last year, she graduated with an Academic Masters in Allied Health Sciences (Optometry) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). She comes from a family of optometrists. Three out of four of her siblings are in this profession, even her mum! Together they run the Y. K. Leong Optometry Centre Sdn. Bhd.

As I was still a little confused between an optometrist and an optician, I asked her about it. “An optometrist needs a degree while an optician doesn’t. Even an engineer can become an optician,” she says.

When asked about her decision to become an optometrist, she simply replied, “When I was young, I had a neighbour who is an optometrist. He played golf every weekend, so I thought it’s an easy job. Of course later I got to know it is a lot of hard work, ” she laughed. Do you like your job? “Yes, I do as it gives me a satisfaction as a career” she said with a twinkle in her eyes. So what’s a typical day at work for an optometrist? “As a small practice, we see patients by appointments. We also have walk-in patients. We do a lot of administration work and this is the unseen tasks that makes the practice runs smoothly. The administration work includes ordering the patients’ contact lenses and spectacles with specific needs of lenses and frame including its alterations and adjustments, writing out vision therapy programmes, giving consultation on vision like low vision needs, sports vision, pediatric optometry, myopia control and ordering of contact lens solution and specific eye drops and more.” “My involvement in Association of Malaysian Optometrists (AMO) and Malaysian Academy of Optometry also puts a lot of demand on my practice and also, a part of my everyday work. My consultancy can be in many aspects of optometry so there’s never a typical day if I practice the full range of optometry like pediatric, contact lenses, low vision, specialty contact lenses, further investigative techniques like fundus photography, visual fields, tonometry and others,” she said. A good optometrist will do well professionally and in business. The career of optometrists can be in the retail, hospital services sector or even in the optical industry working for the suppliers.

So what is required to be an optometrist? “For entrance requirements, you need to be in pure science for A-levels, STPM or Science pre-university. You usually need 3As although sometimes it depends on which university you’re going to.” Currently there are six universities in Malaysia which offer degrees in optometry. The three public universities are Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), International Islamic University (UIA) and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). The private universities are National Institute of Ophthalmology (NIO), International University College of Technology Twintech (ICUTT) and Management and Science University (MSU). But surely just a degree isn’t enough to be a good optometrist? “Of course, you need to work hard and be discipline,” she says.

Her advice to those who want to take up this profession - “It’s a Health Science career and deals with public healthcare and primary eye care. You need to be a responsible person who loves people in relation to giving sight and rehabilitation of vision. It also gives business opportunities through the sale of spectacles, contact lenses and accessories together with consultancy fees.