Career Mirror -- by Mark Sproxton

In and out of the office they walk. The lights are dim, sophisticated computer-like equipment and large microscope-type devices attached to a barber-shop like chair fill a corner of the room. Children, youth, adults, all requiring an eye exam, make a steady stream out of the room. For the most part, all leave happy, as they have for years.

"In this career you don't have as many sickly people coming in, like some of the GPs (family doctors)," says Dr. John Dvorack, an optometrist at the Kensington Eye Health Centre. "You can help 95 per cent of the people you see and you feel you are helping. I can imagine a GP seeing 10 people and there's nothing he can do. I don't have to give the bad news to people that often."

Optometrist Dr. John Dvorack enjoys using sophisticated equipment to help better peoples' vision.

But helping people is only a part of what drew Dvorack to optometry over 20 years ago. "I like the way it's evolving and constantly changing. I like the technology and the advancements in it. One of the benefits that comes with the career, you can work in numerous provinces if you choose and you can have some control of the hours of work and the vacations you take." Successful optometrists not only have technical skills, but some business savy too.

Those benefits don't come without years of schooling, however. Dvorack first completed his bachelor of science degree at the University of Calgary before applying to Canada's only English optometry school at the University of Waterloo. He was accepted to the program and completed his Doctor of Optometry in 1988. As there is only one English school in the country, there are about 10 times as many applicants as there are students accepted into the program.

"With the educational aspect you have to have courses similar to pre-medicine, very heavy in the sciences," Dvorack said. "Also like medicine, very few people can get in. Don't give up. You may not get in your first time. Persist." Once accepted, students undergo extensive testing at school and spend a significant amount of time working in an optometry office applying theory and techniques learned in the classroom. Upon completion of the degree, optometrists must also license in the province they choose to work. Licensing varies from province to province.

With that long behind him, Dvorack now sees anywhere from 10 to 20 patients a day performing tests to see if there's a need for spectacles or contact lens correction, to evaluate the muscle co-ordination of the eyes, or to check for eye diseases that may need pharmaceutical treatment. While optometrists in Canada do not perform surgery or laser eye surgery, they are licensed to prescribe certain ocular (eye) medications.

"A lot of people don't realize many days can be repetitive," he said. "You do things very much the same for one patient after another. You have to have some patience and persistence. (And) a lot of our day is spent in dim lighting conditions. You adapt to it, but when you first start it can be hard."

Dvorack, an associate at the centre, typically works a regular Monday to Friday nine-to-five day, but optometrists' hours depend on whether or not they own their own business or are in a partnership with others. Some offices are open evenings and weekends. He said it's not uncommon for optometrists to work flexible hours that allow for time to be spent with family as required.

An optometrist will start out earning in the $50,000 to $60,000 a year range, but can earn more depending on how many patients are seen and how much revenue is generated in the office through the sale of glasses and contact lenses (if those services are provided). In Alberta, optometrists are typically paid a specific fee for each service they provide to each patient.

Anyone considering becoming an optometrist should ponder Dvorack's words of wisdom: "Keep your grades up. It doesn't hurt to do volunteer work and to try to get into situations where they can interact with people. Get some understanding of business. The biggest problem is people getting out with the technical skills with little understanding of how to run a business. And that can be a pitfall."