Hello & Welcome to our new blog – The EyeCare Update.
My name is Mandy Davidson, and in addition to being Professional Affairs Manager for Scope Eyecare, I am an Optometrist with a special interest in the tear film and ocular surface disease (or dry eye) and run a specialised TEAR Clinic twice a month. I am passionate about educating fellow eyecare professionals to proactively manage patients with dry eye disease so as to offer relief from the debilitating symptoms that many have lived with for a long time. I hope to share with you some useful snippets of information (and more) over the coming months.
My first blog finds us in challenging times – for many of us life has had to be adjusted to align with government guidelines to stay home. The upheaval and uncertainty of the current situation will have affected us all in many different ways, but I am personally trying to continue to use the time to my advantage both professionally and personally. Many of us in Optometry have been able to remain open for emergency appointments but the challenges of triaging by telephone are all too apparent. It certainly is a different way of working which is likely to continue for the foreseeable future with the social distancing restrictions that we all facing as we experience our first few weeks of reopening.
I have also missed my dry eye patients and being there for them. My dry eye clinic was not deemed as an emergency clinic, but I know that they have been in the safe hands with our Optometrist and practice owner who was at the end of the phone should they need help or advice. I am very much looking forward to returning and I’m currently exploring how I can modify my clinics to run safely and effectively for all.
Our Irish colleagues have been experiencing the new challenges of seeing patients in routine clinics again for a while longer, whilst those of us in the UK are experiencing the practical challenges of our new health and safety protocols, PPE and adjusted appointment scheduling. We can still use any spare time to our advantage, there is an abundance of good quality CET available to enable us to learn and upskill in the areas that we have been promising ourselves for some time.
Hopefully the light at the very end of this long tunnel is getting closer, but until then stay safe and enjoy learning.
Mandy
