Marjolijn Bijlefeld
9/24/2009
September and school are intertwined. Pencils, lunchboxes and “dorm rooms in a bag” can be had at bargain prices. Optometrists who are moms are doing double duty as they march their own children through the back-to-school preparations while seeing the appointment book fill up with back-to-school eye exams. Women O.D.s who serve on college faculties are getting to know this year’s group of students. Even if you haven’t been to school in years, there’s something refreshing about the season.
The four women O.D.s in our cover stories have their own back-to-school stories to tell. Each of them has completed an M.B.A. in addition to an O.D. degree. One of them, Dr. Angie Ghanayem, earned them at the same time, but the other three decided to bolster their practice experience with business education. It was a good move, they say, because business know-how is essential to optometry. That’s true for practice owners and associates, who say their additional skills make them more valuable to the practice.
While squeezing an M.B.A. program into an already busy lifestyle may not seem feasible, there are plenty of ways that O.D.s can pursue higher education. An increasing number of business courses are being taught at seminars and conferences. Public libraries offer books on a range of subjects. Make it a point to look for the business stories in optometric journals. Join or rededicate yourself to your local Chamber of Commerce to see what business trends and ideas interest other professionals; you might be surprised at the overlap.
In fact, one common refrain among women O.D.s featured in the pages of Women In Optometry is how much they learned after they received their professional degrees. Dr. Kelly Nichols’ research is just the tip of the iceberg on ocular surface disease. Behavioral optometrist Dr. Diane Serex-Dougan continually learns from other health care specialists working with her during a patient’s rehabilitation. Ask questions of those in your network to identify where your additional interests lie—and then learn more.
Speaking of education, please note the list of women valedictorians or top graduates from the nation’s schools and colleges of optometry. Congratulations to all of the class of 2009, many of whom will be breaking from the back-to-school routine for the first time in 20 years. Be proud of what you’ve accomplished—and remember, there’s still more to learn and more to teach.
Marjolijn Bijlefeld
Managing Editor
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