What Is An Orthoptist?
My name is Teniola Soyoye and I am an Advanced Orthoptist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and the work experience lead for the British and Irish Orthoptic Society.
The most common question I get from students, friends and family is ‘What is orthoptics? Is it feet? Bones? Teeth? Isn’t that an optician?” I’ll admit that I often greet their confused faces with an amused smile before explaining what a wonderful profession I am privileged to be part of.
“I am an Orthoptist”- Orthoptic has the Greek roots orthos, meaning 'straight', and optikos, meaning 'relating to sight', therefore simply 'straight eyes'.
We typically work for the NHS in a hospital setting with both children and adults to investigate, diagnose and manage eye movement disorders such as strabismus (squint), amblyopia (lazy eye), nystagmus (wobbly eyes) as well as neurological defects. We are the experts in analysing the ocular movement systems and identifying why the eyes are not working correctly as a pair.
What does a typical day look like?
There really is no true typical day because our patients vary so differently in how they present. However, my day starts with the morning clinic from 9 am-12 pm. I will then have lunch and the afternoon clinic will run from 1 pm with my working day finishing at 5 pm. I will be assigned to either the paediatric or adult clinic in the morning and afternoon and have a list of booked patients for the orthoptic team with a range of conditions affecting vision or binocular vision. Adult patients typically may be experiencing symptoms such as sudden or longstanding double vision or blurred vision. They may also have ocular misalignment or uncontrolled movement of the eyes. As an orthoptist, I am trained to diagnose and manage these binocular vision and eye movement disorders. The treatment we may give includes orthoptic exercises, giving prisms on glasses to join double vision, or pre-operation assessments for possible squint surgery or botox injections. I will often see urgent cases admitted through the A+E department for an orthoptic assessment. These patients may have sudden double vision or eye movement disorders caused by trauma such as a fall, faulty nerve signals within the brain (nerve palsies), neurological impairments, or other known or unknown systemic conditions such as myasthenia gravis, multiple sclerosis, or graves disease.
For the paediatric clinics, many of the patients are children under the age of 7 years who are referred by either their local optician, GP, or health visitor. My role as an orthoptist is to detect any defects in binocular vision such as a squint or lazy eye. I support parents in the diagnosis and management of improving vision in a lazy eye with occlusion therapy (eye patching or atropine eye drops). Often this can prove difficult with young children and my job definitely requires patience and effective communication skills to deliver the best patient care and support for families.
As part of my advanced orthoptist role, I lead the children’s vision clinic for those with special educational needs and learning difficulties such as autism, cerebral palsy or developmental delay. As an orthoptist, I am trained in the ability to assess the vision and ocular movements of children (and adults) who are non-verbal and may have additional needs. In this way, I can give advice to the patient and their families in order to improve their vision and quality of life.
Orthoptists work autonomously meaning we have our own patient caseload, however, we also work as part of a multidisciplinary team. This includes working with nurses, optometrists, and ophthalmologists, as well as other allied health professionals to provide the best patient care.
How do you become an orthoptist?
Orthoptics is a 3-4 year undergraduate degree course depending on where you study. As well as being taught the required theoretical knowledge, students in Orthoptics are also required to gain extensive practical clinical experience.
Courses typically include clinical skills sessions on campus and around 30 weeks in clinical hospital and community eye service placements across the degree.
There are 2 universities in England where you can study orthoptics, the University of Liverpool and the University of Sheffield.
For more information on the undergraduate course, including prerequisites please visit:
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/orthoptics-bsc-hons/overview/
Or
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/2021/orthoptics-bmedsci
If you wish to study Orthoptics in Scotland, you can access the undergraduate course at Glasgow Caledonian University. More details can be found here:
https://www.gcu.ac.uk/study/courses/details/index.php/P02367/Orthoptics
UCL and the University of Liverpool also offer fast-track routes into orthoptics for prospective students who have a minimum of a second-class Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. Relevant subject areas include: biological sciences, chemistry, nursing and psychology. Both UCL and the University of Liverpool are two-year full-time Orthoptics MSc (pre-registration) courses and are great if you already have an undergraduate degree! :
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/taught-degrees/orthoptics-pre-registration-msc
or
On completing an orthoptic degree (undergraduate or postgraduate), graduates are fully qualified Orthoptists and eligible to apply to the HCPC for registration.
Orthoptist is a title that is protected by law, and can only be used by those registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). The HCPC regulates 16 health and care professions.
Why did I become an orthoptist?
When I was in secondary school, I knew I wanted to work within healthcare in a dynamic role that had a direct impact on patients of all ages and good career progression. Orthoptics is just that. I have had patients from only a few weeks old up to 103! I work with a team of 20+ orthoptists alongside optometrists (opticians) , ophthalmologists (eye surgeons), nurses, play specialists, paediatricians and many other healthcare professionals in a hospital setting where I am challenged each and every day. The work is exciting, practical and 6 years after graduating I am still learning new skills and building my theoretical knowledge each day.
To find out more about orthoptics, the degree, role and job prospects, visit orthoptics.org.uk or contact careers@orthoptics.org.uk where you can discover work shadow opportunities in an orthoptic department near you.