Orthoptist
Career outlook for orthoptist
UK Salary Ranges
Entry-level
£28,000
£28,000
Experienced
£50,000
£50,000
Currently employed in Scotland
2,700
Salary information is provided by the "National Careers Service". "Oxford Economics" supplies job forecasts and employment figures. Due to COVID-19 the jobs market is constantly changing. Some of the information may not reflect the current situation.
What's it like?
You would treat people who have problems with their eyes due to a condition, illness or injury. You’d do tests to find the problem and decide on the best way to treat it.
You’d help people of all ages with conditions that affect their eye muscles, connected nerves, eye movement and vision. Using specialist equipment you would examine their vision and how their eyes work.
A lot of the patients you see would have:
- A squint (strabismus)
- Reduced or double vision
- A ‘lazy eye’ (amblyopia)
- A disorder due to injury or disease
Other patients could have vision problems as a result of:
- Glaucoma
- Cataracts
- A stroke
- Retinal disease
- Neurological disorders
Patients would be referred to you from the eye casualty and neurology departments of hospitals, GPs and health visitors.
You would also do vision tests with children in schools and community centres.
You’d recommend treatments such as:
- Using an eye patch
- Doing regular eye exercises
- Contact lenses for children including teaching parents how to insert and remove them
- Low vision aids
- Surgery
Sometime you’d refer patients to a different specialist, for example, when you find that a problem is caused by another condition like a brain tumour.
Having problems with their eyes will be very worrying for people and sometimes they might be distressed. You’d need to explain the issues to them patiently. They might also feel that a treatment does not help and so you’d need to encourage them to keep going with it.
It would be important to keep accurate patient records including details of the diagnosis, treatment and progress.
You are likely to work in a team alongside other healthcare professionals, including ophthalmologists (eye surgeons), optometrists - who prescribe and dispense glasses and lenses - and vision scientists.
You can see more about this role in the National Health Service on the Orthoptist page on the NHSScotland Careers website.
Working conditions
Hours
Environment
UK employment status
Full-time
23%
Part-time
24%
Self employed
53%
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Qualifications
You need an honours degree in orthoptics (SCQF level 10), a Certificate of Clinical Competency and to register with the General Optical Council (GOC).
Entry requirements are five Highers (SCQF level 6) at BBBBC including English, Maths and two science subjects plus English and Physics at Standard grade Credit level 1 or National 5 (SCQF level 5)at B. Higher Biology or Human Biology preferred.
Useful subjects
- English (required by the course)
- Maths (required by the course)
- Physics (required by the course)
- Biology
- Human biology,
- Other science subjects
- Other technologies subjects such as ICT
- Care
You will also need
To be approved for membership of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme run by Disclosure Scotland.
Helpful to have
Work experience in a related field is useful.