As summer comes to an end and fall begins, it can feel like a clean slate for many of us. For new graduates who are starting out in their first full-time job or trying part-time roles at more than one practice, this fresh start is unlike any they have ever experienced.
New graduate eyecare providers (ECPs) are making autonomous clinical decisions for the first time, while starting to think—also perhaps for the first time—about how to advance their career and clinical productivity in their new roles.
Establishing good contact lens prescribing habits and mindsets early on can ensure new ECPs create strong patient bases, are productive for the practices they contribute to, and continuously improve their clinical skills.
Read on for tips and strategies that new ECPs can use to make sure their contact lens skills and habits best serve both their patients and career goals.
Utilize industry professionals to stay current
Optometry students are consistently exposed to contact lens industry partners. Events and workshops highlighting new products are planned strategically around students’ shared schedules to make sure all students are exposed to information about new brands and technologies.
This means that when a new ECP graduates, they feel very aware and well-versed on the latest and greatest offerings from contact lens manufacturers. In a fast-paced, ever-advancing market, however, an ECP can quickly fall behind on what’s new in the contact lens market—especially if those product updates aren’t strategically scheduled into their calendar.
Tips for developing relationships with product reps
The easiest way to stay current and educated early on is to interact with and learn from the product representatives who visit your office on a regular basis. These industry professionals contain a wealth of knowledge and specific details about their products and how you can effectively implement them in your practice.
They succeed when you succeed, so noting their tips on how to achieve a good fit or sell an annual supply will allow you to be more efficient and effective. They also often have informed perspectives on local markets, how other providers are or aren’t having success with certain products, and may even be instrumental in connecting you with future employers or employees.
In the middle of a busy clinic schedule, it can feel cumbersome to pause to have a quick chat with these industry professionals. If you prioritize those discussions and relationships, however, you will find that your ability to prescribe effectively and move products through your practice will improve.
Take advantage of being “new”
New ECPs have a unique advantage as they enter established practices or as they are starting their own business. The patients they are seeing for the first time have no pre-set expectations of how that doctor will approach prescribing contact lenses.
With a new provider, patients are more likely to expect or accept a change in their contact lenses and may be more open to trialing something new—even if they have been “fine” in an older brand for a long time.
The first few years of practicing in a new location are a great opportunity for new providers to upgrade patients from older products into newer, more comfortable, and visually satisfying options.
“In the current contact lens market, we know that several types of contact lens wearers are underserved.”
About 50% of all contact lens wearers have enough astigmatism to warrant a toric contact lens,1 but only about 25% are actually wearing an astigmatic option.2 Similarly, only about 60% of presbyopic contact lens wearers are wearing a modality that addresses their near and distance vision needs.3
New ECPs can take advantage of this market opportunity by offering contact lens modality upgrades as they are seeing these patients for the first time.
Trust your expertise
It's been reported that the ECP has the most influence over a patient if they are successful in upgrading their contact lenses.4
Instead of feeling uneasy about being the “new person” in the practice, new ECPs should take confidence in their fresh perspectives and offer them to the patient:
- Try a multifocal for the first time in a presbyope who is struggling with reading glasses.
- Upgrade a low-toric patient to an astigmatic contact lens for the first time to highlight the subtle but impactful improvement in vision.5-8
- Move a monthly replacement wearer into a daily disposable modality for the first time.
- Take advantage of a sometimes slower schedule for new doctors and spend an extra minute or two educating every patient and forming a relationship.
These upgrades will improve patient satisfaction, increase the productivity of the practice, and ensure that you are continuing to improve your clinical effectiveness by offering the most advanced products to your patients. As well, showing your patients that you are considering their unique contact lens needs will foster loyalty and ensure that they return next year.
Become a specialist
The word “specialty” in the contact lens world might feel intimidating if you didn’t complete a residency or can’t remember the last time you touched a gas permeable lens material. Even if you feel like you are outside of the “specialty” lens arena as a new ECP, you are actually closer than you will ever be again. The notes you took during your contact lens courses haven’t started collecting dust yet.
If you wait a few years to try out a specialty contact lens modality, however, you might have trouble accessing some of that education and clinical experience that you invested in relatively recently. Take advantage of the familiarity you have from your time in school now to start advancing your contact lens practice.
“As a newly practicing ECP, challenge yourself to try out a specialty contact lens modality early on.”
You don’t have to try every specialty contact lens variety at once. Start with something that interests you and feels accessible. This could mean partnering with a lab that makes a scleral lens you feel comfortable with and committing to fitting a certain number of patients a month. It might be setting a goal to do a few new orthokeratology fits before the end of the year.
Having the materials in your office and getting started with a specialty lens fit—even if it feels a little awkward at first—will establish the momentum you need to begin offering specialty lens services to your patients.
Specialty lens laboratories (like product representatives) only succeed when their prescribers succeed, so they provide you with excellent resources and top-notch lab consultants who can walk you through almost any clinical fitting scenario.
Conclusion
By being intentional about staying current on lens product knowledge, consistently upgrading prescriptions, and being open-minded to specialty lens options, new ECPs can avoid falling behind in the contact lens arena.
Through clinical effectiveness, personal career satisfaction, and practice growth, contact lenses can allow a new ECP to shine early on in their practice.
