Transition from Orthoptics to Optometry

Hi

I am a mature student and already have completed a first undergraduate degree completely irrelevant to what I'm interested in doing now. I have a keen interest and really want to study optometry however student finance won't fund a second undergraduate degree unless it's on the exemption list such as teaching, social work and a list of NHS courses.

Luckily Orthoptics was added to this list maybe a year ago or so. And tbh I do feel like orthoptics is a very interesting field and I am quite keen on this too.

So my question is if I study BMedSci Orthoptics at Sheffield university onece graduated is there any route or options to transition into Optometry if I wanted to?

Orthoptics was added to the NHS FUNDED COURSE LIST due to a shortage so I'm guessing the job opportunities will be brilliant as I've heard the graduate optometry field is highly saturated.

Any advice please

Hello!

Hope you are well. I am a current Orthoptics student at the Uni of Sheffield so I thought I'd pop in and help. Personally I love Orthoptics, I think it is a great career with lots of job prospects and opportunities for progression into higher roles/ research. The job is super varied, as is the course If you want any further info on Orthoptics feel free to ask! As for transitioning to Optometry, as of current there isn't any method of transferring the degree, the only option is to complete the full degree in Optometry, as Orthoptics and Optometry are treated as completely different degrees despite there similarities and overlap! So to answer your question, yes you could do Optometry after Orthoptics but it wouldn't benefit you cost/time wise any more than just doing Optometry straight away. You are correct on Orthoptics being a shortage profession, there has been some funding recently introduced for Orthoptics students which is a training grant of £5,000+ per year, I have left the link here to the NHS LSF website which has some more info on this including eligibility.

Hope this helps you out a bit, and as I said please feel free to ask anymore questions

Alisha
2nd Year
BMedSci Orthoptics

Hello Alisha - thank you so much for your reply... I have now applied and gotten as far as the interview stage as I applied through clearing.. Thank you for you input and I do believe orthoptics will be the right choice for me.. I have looked into the field even more and would like to specialise in working with the children's or pediatrics department - if you have any advice for my interview this week do let me know. Thanks again. Best Regards, Aisha

Hi Aisha!

Congrats on getting an interview ! That's great to hear, there is so many opportunities for paediatric care with Orthoptics! My best bit of advice for interview would to act genuine, admissions tutors for most allied health care courses are just wanting to see applicants who are passionate and interested in the career they are applying for. If you have a specific area of interest to mention that is also good as it shows you have done research into the course, eg. even menioning wanting to work with children would be a good point as our primary role involves working with children. If you have any work experience with any transferable skills you could apply to Orthoptics that is also really good to add in. Finally I would recommend having a quick look at the NHS values just to be familiar with them, it can be good to try and link in things you have done that represent NHS values to show you have appreciated them. I was asked to read the NHS values before my interview so this might not be a requirement for your interview but still handy to know about !

Hope this helps, best of luck!

Let me know if I can help with anything else

Alisha
2nd Year
BMedSci Orthoptics

Hello Alisha

I had my interview in 3 parts today - academics/orthoptics/welfare!

I feel like it went well but couldn't say for sure. I had done alot of research and all the questions I prepared answers for came up.. As you said I also last minute prepared for NHS Values questions and I'm so glad I did as 2 of the main questions were based around this!! So thank you very much !!

I won't hear back until next week but I've just realised it's A level results day next Tuesday so that makes sense .. I was told the course is very competitive so fingers crossed!!

😊😊

Hi again

That's great news, sounds like it went well to me! I have my fingers crossed for you, so glad I could help. If you have any more questions or need help with anything feel free to ask and I will always be happy to help

Alisha
3rd Year
BMedSci Orthoptics

Hello Alisha 😁

I got accepted and was successful with my interview.
Never been so nervous tho I don't have much scientific knowledge but hopefully the Foundation Year will help me with that.

The only thing mentioned which was mentioned at the interview too was that as hospitals usually only have 1 eye department work placements can be anywhere across England.. so I wanted to ask about your work placements experience with the UoS and where you did your placements and the likelihood of having to stay somewhere far from home.. ?

I do drive so I wouldn't mind driving a distance this is fine but do students stay away in other cities? Is this a requirement? And any other information you can provide around the placement side of things.. can we find our own local to us? How it all works on general please.

Thank you 😊

Hi,

Congratulations on your offer! I know quite a few people who had a foundation year and they haven't had a problem in the following years So our placements are allocates randomly, there is typically only one eye clinic per hospital but this varies in size depending on the hospital. When we get sent away on placement we typically get sent with a placement buddy, sometimes can be sent alone. The location can be anywhere across the UK and Northern Ireland. It's up to you whether you wish to stay in the city you have been allocated or commute from home/uni accommodation. Most students do stay in the city allocated as it's much easier when we have early starts in clinic, we get reimbursed for our travel and accommodation expenses for the placement period, this is £25 per night max for hospital accommodation or £55 per night max for other accommodation. You can pair up your budget with your placement partner too if you wanted to get somewhere to share, which a lot of people do. Locations try to be fairly distributed, so if you get sent far away for one placement you are likely to be sent closer to home for the next and vice versa. They also try and give a mix of bigger and smaller eye clinics too. I have been sent to so far: Bedford, Great Yarmouth and York, York being my home town.

Hope this helps you out a bit, as always feel free to ask anymore questions

Alisha
3rd Year
BMedSci Orthoptics

Thank you I'm very excited to get started!!

Are the foundation years funded for bursaries and SFE I'm finding it difficult to be get in touch the phone lines seem to be very busy and I have my little one so can't hold for too long. I read on Google foundation years are not funded which I hope is note the case 😭😭!!

Hello!
Hope you are well. I am a current Orthoptics student at the Uni of Sheffield so I thought I'd pop in and help. Personally I love Orthoptics, I think it is a great career with lots of job prospects and opportunities for progression into higher roles/ research. The job is super varied, as is the course If you want any further info on Orthoptics feel free to ask! As for transitioning to Optometry, as of current there isn't any method of transferring the degree, the only option is to complete the full degree in Optometry, as Orthoptics and Optometry are treated as completely different degrees despite there similarities and overlap! So to answer your question, yes you could do Optometry after Orthoptics but it wouldn't benefit you cost/time wise any more than just doing Optometry straight away. You are correct on Orthoptics being a shortage profession, there has been some funding recently introduced for Orthoptics students which is a training grant of £5,000+ per year, I have left the link here to the NHS LSF website which has some more info on this including eligibility.
Hope this helps you out a bit, and as I said please feel free to ask anymore questions
Alisha
2nd Year
BMedSci Orthoptics

Hi,
Congratulations on your offer! I know quite a few people who had a foundation year and they haven't had a problem in the following years So our placements are allocates randomly, there is typically only one eye clinic per hospital but this varies in size depending on the hospital. When we get sent away on placement we typically get sent with a placement buddy, sometimes can be sent alone. The location can be anywhere across the UK and Northern Ireland. It's up to you whether you wish to stay in the city you have been allocated or commute from home/uni accommodation. Most students do stay in the city allocated as it's much easier when we have early starts in clinic, we get reimbursed for our travel and accommodation expenses for the placement period, this is £25 per night max for hospital accommodation or £55 per night max for other accommodation. You can pair up your budget with your placement partner too if you wanted to get somewhere to share, which a lot of people do. Locations try to be fairly distributed, so if you get sent far away for one placement you are likely to be sent closer to home for the next and vice versa. They also try and give a mix of bigger and smaller eye clinics too. I have been sent to so far: Bedford, Great Yarmouth and York, York being my home town.
Hope this helps you out a bit, as always feel free to ask anymore questions
Alisha
3rd Year
BMedSci Orthoptics