Mira tells us all about her role as a Specialist Orthoptist

Where do I start? I’ve always known that I wanted to work somewhere helping people so I logically fell into health care. Also, I’ve always had a maternal nature and wanted to work with children

During my A Levels, I completed work experience in hospitals, volunteered at a hospice and a nursery. I began to research several professions that fitted my passion to help children within a health care setting. Initially I thought to study Medicine and qualify as a paediatrician but I am very squeamish and often fainted at the sight of blood.

This led me to look into other options and Orthoptics stood out to me. Orthoptics is the study of eye disease and eye movement problems, the majority of patients an orthoptist sees are children and elderly – click here for more information about Orthoptics. I decided to apply to the University of Sheffield and graduated with an upper second-class honours BMedSci Orthoptics degree classification in 2017. 

It has been 3 years since I started working at the Children’s Eye Service for Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust. I am part of a small team and I really enjoy my role working with children. Every day is different which keeps me interested in the role. Within my role, I have helped with clinical management, hosting careers fairs and attended study days. There are extended role opportunities if you worked in a larger department, for example at a hospital outpatients. There are other routes such as teaching and researching roles available. I am happy that I chose to pursue my career in Orthoptics and if you are interested – click here for more information about a career in Orthoptics.