Three on-the-go optometrists describe why they’ve chosen mobile optometry roles with Specsavers, and how it feeds into their future plans.
After three years rotating between 12 different stores in the Hunter Valley and Newcastle region as a Specsavers mobile optometrist in NSW, Ms Michelle Chau now has the breadth of experience and confidence to explore ownership opportunities.
Since graduating from UNSW in 2017, Chau accepted a graduate role with OPSM in Dubbo before supercharging her career with Specsavers in a mobile optometry role in the Newcastle region where has been exposed to various demographics, pathologies and store dynamics.
“The mobile optometry role was appealing because it was flexible and offered variety in terms of who I would be working with. I was originally planning to settle into one store, but three years later I’m still doing this role.”
Chau is part of a growing mobile optometry team, providing relief for Specsavers practices. It’s like a locum position but comes with a full-time contract and all the benefits of regular employees such as annual leave, birthday leave, CPD leave, and two free pairs of glasses a year.
Mobile optometrists, who can fetch generous six-figure salaries, support stores across the country, with some strategically located in locations including ACT, Newcastle and Perth where optometry resources are constrained. Others work in a ‘fly in fly out’ capacity and support regional locations to allow partners and employees to take leave or to provide support in stores where an ongoing resource is required.
Overall, the program – around in its current form since 2018 – has 28 positions across ANZ, with openings currently across Australia and New Zealand. It’s ideal for a confident optometrist who is comfortable with flexible working and an understanding family support system for those that travel away.
In her mobile optometrist role, Chau is typically rostered on five days a week and works in a different store every day.
“I have to be adaptable. I’m constantly meeting new staff. I drive up to about 50km from where I live in Newcastle. I did one week in Gladstone (Queensland) but that was rare, because there’s always demand in the Newcastle area.”
Rotating between a dozen stores, Chau notices the variation in patient demographics.
“If I’m working in a Newcastle CBD location, I see a lot more young, educated professionals. If I’m working in Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, I see six or seven patients with diabetes a day. I see a lot of foreign bodies when I work in Singleton and Cessnock, which are a lot closer to mining areas,” she says.
In 2022, Chau completed the Specsavers Pathway Program for aspiring store partners. She is exploring partnership opportunities, with several practices for sale in the Hunter Valley and Newcastle region.
“I’ve been exposed to so many stores, I can see what works well, and I’d like to apply everything that I’ve learned to my own practice,” she explains.
“I’ve become friends with the directors and optometrists that work across the 12 stores I visit, so I’ll be able to get second, third, and fourth opinions on cases that I’m not sure about and lean on them for advice for operating the practice.”
Work-life balance
This month Mr Anton Hong, who has been a full-time Specsavers mobile optometrist in Perth for more than a year, is moving to Adelaide to pursue a passion project. But his optometric skills will remain sharp in a part-time capacity.
“I’m relocating for a few reasons. Firstly, I run a YouTube channel about optometry – called Antonio the Optometrist – so I’m reducing my hours to develop this,” he says.
“Secondly, the time zone difference between Adelaide and New Zealand, where I’m from, won’t be as severe as in Perth, where it can be up to five hours, which makes it difficult to keep in touch with friends and family.”
Hong completed his optometry qualification at the University of Auckland in 2017. After graduating, he moved to Perth, and spent his first two years working at Specsavers. He then joined Bailey Nelson for the next two years, performing a floating store role. He returned to Specsavers to join the mobile optometry team.
“With a mobile role, it’s a new place every time and it’s problem solving on the spot, so it challenges you intellectually,” he says.
A keen golfer, Hong prefers driving to flying, so he can take his golf clubs.
“I only started playing golf recently, because I found while doing this role that I have the opportunity to check out so many different places, I might as well make the most of it.”
Most of his time in Perth – three weeks in a month – Hong was working in Specsavers city and metro stores, and living with optometry friends in a share house, including another mobile optometrist.
“It gave me a good insight. One of my housemates is now a Specsavers store director and another is about to become one, and because I have experience with different clinics, we discuss what works and what doesn’t and that helps them,” Hong says.
Every month or two, he travelled to rural areas where private specialists aren’t as abundant, testing his clinical and patient management skills to the limit. Bunbury, Busselton, and Albany, south of Perth, were locations he frequented, as well as up north at Geraldton, where he saw many mining industry patients with foreign bodies and dry eye.
“It’s sometimes a challenge – because I know that I won’t be in a certain clinic the next time – to fully manage a case. I have to ensure that by the time I’ve finished my shift, everything I can do, has to be done. I leave work knowing that I’ve given it my best.”
Hong hasn’t looked back since becoming a mobile optometrist.
“I don’t know if I could ever go back to just being in the one place,” he says.
“Your clinical and communication skills have to be on point because you’re given 20 or 25 minutes with a patient to handle it from start to finish.”
His mobile optometrist experience sparked the idea of his YouTube project, which aims to provide straightforward explanations to certain eye diseases and how they’re managed.
“When seeing a patient, sometimes the knowledge gap is too large for optometrists to fully explain on the spot. If patients had access to resources, like my YouTube channel that allow them to understand certain concepts better, then they can get more out of the eye test.”
More patients, more pathology
Exposure to more patients per day – and therefore, more pathology – was a strong drawcard for Adelaide-based Ms Katie Schneider to accept a mobile optometry job. Like Hong, Schneider has been working as a mobile optometrist for over a year. She graduated from Flinders University in 2018 and started her career with Luxottica before joining Specsavers in June 2021.
The early-career optometrist typically alternates between metro and regional stores fortnightly, with her roster planned months in advance.
“It allows me to plan ahead and know where I’ll be. I’ve enjoyed the mix of being able to do locum-style work but also still being an employee. Full time employee benefits like annual leave are a big drawcard. However, the job security the role provides is probably the main benefit, as you are guaranteed 38 hours per week, compared to traditional locum work where the onus is on you to find work,” she says.
“I’ve done several regional placements in South Australia over the last year: Port Pirie and the Yorke Peninsula – including the Kadina and Minlaton stores – to Whyalla, Berri and the Riverland, and to Port Lincoln and Victor Harbor.”
She has also worked interstate, including Albany in WA, Emerald in Queensland, and more recently Lismore and Bega in NSW.
Schneider can see more than 20 patients a day in some locations, a significant change from her experience prior to joining Specsavers. Although Specsavers stores typically use the same software and equipment and operate similarly, she likes to be prepared for the unexpected and arrives early to her shifts to get a feel for the store.
“I see things that work well and areas that could be improved in different stores, and I’ve learned what sort of patient demographic I like treating. I’ve enjoyed a lot of regional placements where I’ve had more authority and have taken on more of the management than what I would in some of the city stores,” she explains.
Schneider has noticed a lot more patients with diabetes in regional areas.
“It depends on the region, but I’ve seen a lot more diabetic retinopathy and macular oedema,” she explains.
“In my second week of starting, I had a 16-year-old patient who had been hit in the eye with a soccer ball. She had a retinal tear and I had to refer her to an ophthalmologist in Adelaide, two-and-a-half hours away. I’ve referred patients with optic neuritis or papilledema for treatment, and removed a lot of foreign bodies, particularly metal, when working in regional areas. Often there are no hospitals nearby, so I’ve become a lot more confident with the Alger brush to remove them.
“Even treating uveitis or herpes simplex keratitis, because you don’t have ophthalmology nearby, you’ve got to take on more of that management yourself.”
A Specsavers mobile optometry career – what’s involved?
- Three years-plus experience as a practising optometrist.
- For ‘Fly in fly out’, Specsavers provide all travel (flights and car hire) and self-contained accommodation.
- Generally, Specsavers supports the needs of the mobile optometrist whether working away for three to four weeks at maximum capacity then a full week home resting, using time in lieu, or continuously travel from one location to the next, if preferred.
- State-based roles, mobile optometrists work a 38-hour week across multiple stores in their vicinity with option to travel regionally if they wish to do so.
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