Clinical guides and practice resources to support your optometry career

From clinical guidelines to practice and patient resources, Optometry Australia ensures all members have at their disposal a comprehensive suite of resources to support their optometry career.

In line with our 2021-24 Strategic Plan, our mission is to lead, unite, engage and promote optometry, optometrists and community eye health.

A key objective under our LEAD pillar is to ensure all our members have access to evidence-based advice on immediate ‘best practice’ and emerging ‘next practice’ optometry.

Clinical Policy Manager, Kerryn Hart, said, ‘We want to remind our members of the suite of resources freely available to them within the ‘Practice & Patient Management’ section of our website. There’s advice on Medicare billing, patient privacy, assessing fitness to drive and an updated PBS prescribing guide for optometrists, among many other resources.

‘We are constantly reviewing and updating our resources and are currently undertaking a review of our AMD clinical practice guide. Additionally, we are developing two new guides focusing on Quality Use of Medicine and Post-Cataract Care.

‘Given the number of optometrists assuming roles in ophthalmology practices, we’re also in the process of creating a document on ‘Working in an Ophthalmology Practice – Medicare Billing and Other Tips’.’

The time spent reading our patient and practice management resources is eligible for clinical CPD hours, if you can explain in a reflection what you learnt and how that information will improve your patients’ outcomes, or non-clinical CPD hours if it is non-clinical in nature but could still improve the management of patients in some tangible way. This activity can be recorded under the ‘My own activities’ section that can be found at the bottom of your CPD portfolio.

Resources

Our resources encompass:

• Accessories & books
• Clinical advice & practice notes (Billing – Medicare and private, Record keeping, Referrals and more)
• Clinical practice guides (Telehealth, Infection control guidelines, Competency standards and more)
• Consumer marketing resources (Eye health pamphlets and brochures, Media release templates, Children’s vision resources and more)
• Prescribing medicines & PBS
• Driving standards (Fitness to drive, Patient information sheets and more)
• The Department of Veterans Affairs (Becoming a DVA provider, DVA schedules fees and more)
• Health records & patient privacy
• NDIS
• Self-assessment auditing tool
• Subsidised spectacles scheme

‘We are always reviewing our resources and we welcome input and suggestions from members regarding any necessary updates or missing resources. Please feel free to reach out via policy@optometry.org.au to let us know your suggestions.’