A DAY IN THE LIFE OF: DR LISA O’DONOGHUE, LECTURER IN OPTOMETRY, UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER
After wearing spectacles for years, Dr Lisa O’Donoghue was drawn to optometry by a fascination and determination to find out why she could not see like her friends could.
Originally from the north west of the Province, Lisa attended boarding school at Loreto Convent in Coleraine. At 19, she moved to Manchester to study Ophthalmic Optics - the forerunner of Optometry. Lisa’s first job was working as an assistant at an optometric practice.
“I’d worn glasses since childhood myself and that’s what drove my interest originally, I wanted to find out more about why I couldn’t see as well as my friends,” she said. “Whilst studying in Manchester, I worked as a receptionist/optical assistant in a high street optometric practice to gain some practical experience. “I basically walked in off the street and asked them to give me a job and they did.” After finishing her course, Lisa continued her studies while working as a pre-registration optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
“It provided great training, whether you wanted to work within an optometric practice, hospital optometry or academia,” she recalls.
“And it was a really interesting job as you saw a whole variety of patients with widely differing ocular conditions, many of whom had significant visual impairment.
“I was involved in assessing how well patients could see and trying to optimise their vision with spectacles.”
Lisa has now been a lecturer at the University of Ulster for 12 years and takes part in research on eyesight issues for children in Northern Ireland.
“My average working hours are very variable depending on what deadlines need to be met and what time of year it is,”she explained.
“I am involved in lecturing and mentoring undergraduate optometry students, clinical teaching and supervising research projects.
“Other duties involve applying for grants to carry out research.”
Lisa is also involved, along with several of her colleagues, with the Northern Ireland Childhood Errors of Refraction (NICER) study.
“This longitudinal study is evaluating the eye health of children in Northern Ireland and trying to establish why some children need to wear spectacles whilst others don’t.
“To date we’ve followed a large cohort of children for six years and have made some interesting findings.
“Children here are much more likely to be short-sighted (myopic) and long-sighted (hyperopic) than similar children in Australia. Work is ongoing to identify why that is but in the meantime parents need to be encouraged to make sure their children have their eyes examined by an optometrist.
“Another part of the NICER research has revealed that many children do not wear their spectacle at school and can’t see properly as a result.
“Having followed these children for some time allows us to establish if this affects how well they achieve educationally,” she said.
Lisa loves that there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ day with her job. “Each day brings new challenges,” she said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to travel and have attended conferences in Europe, USA and South Africa and been involved in supporting the development of optometric education and research in Mozambique.”
Her main responsibilities include teaching undergraduate optometry students and enhancing their student experience.
“To do this job you need to be self-motivated and have a flexible approach to your workload,” she said. “If you ever get to the bottom of the ‘to do’ list you’re not doing the job properly, it also helps to be organised.”
Lisa said that optometry has changed significantly since she started her career.
“There has been a move away from the local independent practice, with larger organisations now dominating eye-care in our towns and cities,” she said.
“When I first qualified there was also no requirement for optometrists to keep up-to-date, but fortunately this has been addressed with continuing education being compulsory to ensure our skills base remains fit for purpose.”
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