My first Eyewear dispensing shift

I had my first dispensing shift at the Illinois Eye Institute Eyewear Center Monday evening. At first I was little intimidated because I didn't know what to expect.  I also left my wet pen at home, so I was frantically asking people if they had a wet pen I could borrow right before my shift started, but I found out we did not really need it.

So, I entered the eyewear center and went to the "back room", filled out my information on the check off list. This is how it works: whenever a patient comes in, the front desk staff will ring a "doorbell", so if a student clinician is available in the back room, he/she should go out to the front desk area and find out who the patient is and what insurance they have. Sometimes the patient comes in and needs to select a frame, sometimes they want to adjust a frame, or sometimes the patient is coming to pick up a frame (dispensing). We also need to answer the phone and answer the patient's questions or direct them to the right person, but I haven't answered a phone call yet.

Here is an example of the steps I took when working with a patient:

-- The doorbell rings.-- I go up the front desk, figure out what the patient needs. I double check with the staff to figure out which frames the patient can select from that his/her insurance will cover.
-- I go out to the waiting room and call/greet the patient. ("Hi, my name is Elaine and I'll be helping you today...".
-- I take them to the appropriate frames and explain to them what frames they can get with their insurance. While they select the frame I go ahead and make a copy of the prescription to hand to the patient for their own copy. Sometimes the patient has trouble finding a frame they want, so I will try to help and make suggestions for the patient.
-- Once patient finishes selecting frame, I walk them over to a fitting table and take a couple measurements (such as the pupillary distance, or PD), or the segment height (for bifocals) on the patient and make sure the frame they select is suitable. When I finish, I call over an optician who is available to come and double check my work.

After Thoughts

The optical shift is so much more laid back then a clinic shift. I mean, my clinic shifts have been fairly easy as well because I had a nice attending and a reliable partner to work with so far. But based on what I hear, it's not always that smooth, especially when I become a 3rd year.  But the good thing about working by myself, is I get to fully engage with a patient on my own. I was even able to make small talk with the patient I was working on as well! My patients were a store manager for a Starbucks (or that's what she told me), a grandmother who was a retired cook from the Chicago Public schools, a cute young elementary school girl who loves the color pink, a mother who came in for buy frames for her daughter and ended buying one for herself when she found out her insurance also covered frames! and many more~ 

I feel like when I was working with a partner, I didn't have the opportunity to engage in conversation with my patient because I would get self-conscious and feel bad about taking too much time with the patient so I would act more shy and less initiative. It also makes me feel too relaxed and at ease with a partner because I knew I had someone to fall back on. But then again, optical dispensing is less stressful than my clinic shift, but clinic experience is what I came here for! So I need to learn to be more assertive when I return to clinic again!