The Years Required to Be a Certified Optometrist
Helping someone "see clearly now" isn't just making sure the rain is gone; sight is an incredibly intricate sense that requires years of study by medical professionals. The people who test vision, recommend glasses and check for ocular disease are called optometrists. To earn their positions, they spend a great deal of time enrolled in post-secondary education courses, similar to their colleagues in other professions of the medical field.
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Length of Education
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The length of time to be certified as an optometrist may be looked at in two ways. In almost all cases, the Doctor of Optometry degree programs at colleges of optometry across the country take about four years to complete. Each school sets its own admissions standards. Ferris State University, for example, requires program applicants to have a minimum of three years of college undergraduate experience but prefers four years/completion of a bachelor's degree. This would equate to a total of seven to eight years total post-secondary education or four years' time at the doctoral level. The Illinois College of Optometry has the same minimum of three years' undergraduate college requirement for its applicants. Applicants to all programs must take the Optometry Admissions Test.
Where to Learn
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The first step in optometry licensing is to enroll in an optometry school. The Accreditation Council on Optometric Education accredits Doctor of Optometry programs and lists 22 schools in the U.S. and Canada among its ranks as of November 2010. Options include the New England College of Optometry, Southern California College of Optometry, State University of New York State College of Optometry and the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry.
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Certification
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Optometrists receive their certification after completing their Doctor of Optometry programs and passing multiple examinations, including one at the national level and one at the state or regional level. Optometrists actually receive licenses instead of certifications, and must renew them every one to three years. Continuing education courses during those time periods are also usually required.
Coursework
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Students in programs such as Ferris State University's Michigan College of Optometry take courses toward their certification, including general and ocular pharmacology, optometric procedures, general pathology, vision science, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, low vision and geriatric vision, advanced ocular disease and environmental vision. Topics of study at the Illinois College of Optometry include applied ocular anatomy, embryology, geometric and theoretical optics, sensory aspects of vision, ocular disease and ocular emergencies.
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References
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