Job/career placement of residents at West LA VA from 1995 through 2003:
Residency training and certification can provide the optometrist with an advantage over non-residency trained peers. It has often been said that upon completion of a residency, one realizes that he has had the equivalent of 5 years more experience than the classmates with whom he graduated. However, a residency provides more than a concentrated work experience. One acquires a different perspective on patient care and new skills which time alone would not provide.
The residency program coordinator receives requests from various institutions and private practitioners who are hiring new optometrists for their staff and who specifically prefer to have residency-trained individuals. Additionally, the program coordinator is often contacted by hospitals to confirm the completion of residency training as they determine newly-hired optometrist’s clinical privileges.
Residents who have completed the training program pursue a variety of career paths. The following is a summary of all practice modes for 25 past residents from West LA VA (completing the program since 1995). Several residents are involved in more than one mode of practice.
32% of residents are in some sort of interdisciplinary/medical/optometry-ophthalmology private practice setting full time or part-time.
24% of residents are involved in teaching optometry residents, optometry interns, or ophthalmology residents at their job sites (i.e., external rotations, NOT on an optometry school campus).
20% are in private optometric practice (partnership, associateship, employee) full or part time.
12% are in traditional health maintenance organizations and work with ophthalmologists
12% are in commercial practice (5% in managerial positon)
12% are employed at a county hospital/government facility
9% have started their own solo private practices “cold”
8% are working at university campus clinics
5% teach optometry students on campus at an optometry school (part-time)
4% are in research