1:30min
Genevieve Quilty
Leadership can sometimes be loosely defined depending on the audience and the context of the conversation.
I took part early in September in strategic scene-setting discussions with our experienced network of State Division CEOs and our senior management at Optometry Australia, as we recalibrate our strategic direction to meet emerging challenges of our profession and the sector in which we operate. We collectively defined leadership as exhibiting:
- strength and clarity in our conviction
- courage and belief
- enthusiasm and positivity.
I am sure that many of these key qualities resonate with you, too, given the clinical leadership roles you play every day in your patients’ lives and any business structures that support the delivery of your patient care.
You will recall that our Aspiration Statement, which was launched in May, is central to our strategic recalibration. The work the organisation does for you and your profession is driven by the centrepiece of this statement—that all Australians deserve the best in private eye health and vision care, and that the best way to achieve this is a strong and progressive profession that upholds and promotes the highest professional standards of patient care.
Supporting our profession are the many continuing professional development conferences. I caught up with many optometrists at WAVE (Perth) and TLC (Hobart), and will see more of you at the ProVision and Eyecare Plus conferences in October.
Thank you for supporting our recent member survey, which we conduct every two years. We are currently assessing your feedback as part of the development of our strategic direction 2015-2018, to help build a strong and progressive profession of optometry, shaping and adjusting programs and policies.
We take every opportunity to promote the profession. World Sight Day will be on 9 October and you can join with Optometry Giving Sight to take part in the World Sight Day Challenge.
Optometry Australia is taking full advantage of World Sight Day during the month. We went into action to take part in our twice-yearly Parliamentary Friends Group event at Federal Parliament on 30 September, celebrating the eye-health heroes in our sector and demonstrating the wonderful work our profession undertakes in local communities to many federal politicians.
On 8 October, we will support and promote eye health and vision care with key stakeholders at a National Press Club speech by Vision 2020’s past and present chairs, former politicians Dr Barry Jones and Amanda Vanstone, respectively. Both will speak about the impacts of an ageing population on Australia’s eye health and the benefits of investing in prevention.
These events are essential to remind key stakeholders of the need for consistent and sustained investment in eye health and vision care.
We will promote the key eye health messages of these events on our social media platforms and through our media partners, and invite you to do the same on your websites or when chatting with your patients.
I encourage members to be familiar with the coming changes to Medicare. Visit the Optometry Australia website to read the helpful new Practices Notes we are developing to support you through these changes in remuneration.
Visit our website for the Practice Notes.