Exit your comfort zone volunteering abroad
2 August 2024
Summer 2024
Offering your skills to local communities abroad can be a life-changing experience. In the final article in a mini-series on volunteering in optometry, Sophie Goodchild looks at what optometrists need to consider before they go.
What is the best course of action if a patient has an eye problem and can’t speak English, you don’t have any dilating drops and you are in the middle of rural Africa?
This was just one of the challenges faced by Raf Islam MCOptom on a two-week programme to Ghana a year into his full-time career. The clinical tutor and optometric adviser is among an estimated 10 million people globally who volunteer abroad every year (CBI, 2020).
Escaping your comfort zone, finding your strengths and weaknesses and reframing your thinking about challenging world issues are among the many benefits of offering your services for free in another country.
For optometrists, opportunities to learn about global eye health and how care is delivered in other countries are available at every career stage – including for students, the newly qualified and experienced clinicians.
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Related further reading
The College joined the biggest national conversation about the NHS in England in order to keep eye health high on the agenda.
The Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning has called for the development of a coordinated approach to eyecare in its response to NHS England’s 10-Year Health Plan.
The College of Optometrists was invited to provide evidence at the parliamentary hearing on The Safer Phones Bill, a private member’s bill aimed at protecting children’s rights and well-being in the digital age.