My inspiration to become an optometrist comes from a humbling experience from meeting Dr. Dewey Handy. I stood in an examination room confident and elated to meet Dr. Handy. He spoke with a pleasant tone as he entered the room and his voice reverberated with each syllable. “Hello, what can I do for you today?” he said. I eagerly responded, “I’m interested in shadowing and working as an optometrist assistant.” He paused for a bit then inquisitively asked, “Do you have any knowledge about the field of optometry?” I thought volunteering as a tutor, shadowing a medical doctor, and working as a student researcher, but I never had direct experience working with an optometrist. My voice quivered with my response. Dr. Handy quickly took a seat and …show more content…
Working in a clinic allows me to vision how my private practice will operate. After shadowing for several weeks, the long eight hours of standing and assisting patients was second nature to me. I have the opportunity to work with pediatric and geriatric patients. Although, I have experience working with both outside of the field medicine, I want to continue while in my career. While interacting with geriatric patients, who tells ten-minute stories before mentioning their real symptoms, I realize patience and diligence is a skill I must possess. Moreover, I find pediatrics to be exciting and challenging. Instructing children to look into cameras and not blink, along with them smiling awaiting a flash, was quite a task. I speak with excitement and joy to encourage them to follow my directions. Along with shadowing, I have work roughly 10 to 20 hours a week in a research laboratory. This experience helps me purpose questions and think logical through challenging problems that’s could be a possible factor on health issues in today’s society. I am able to sharpen my presentation and communication skills with professionals by presenting my research at national conferences. This training I am receiving teaches me how to communicate with patients and maintain a professional