The Challenges militating against Optometry practice in Nigeria and effective participation in Vision2020 :Right to Sight. (An Updated version of the origina blog!)

Optom
Nigerian Optometric practice is essential to effective eye care in Nigeria and no doubt about that...
The challenges of eye care in Nigeria with a population of about 150 million with just about 2130 registered Optometrists and I think with a fewer Ophthalmologists who draw strength from their parent body, The Nigerian Medical and Dental Association etc etc, are very enormous. The politico-academic position of the Optometrists is neither helping the matter nor is it alleviating the burden of blindness and visual handicap as envisioned by Vision 2020: Right to Sight!
As I have been saying all along, we need to position our practice, professionalize a Nigerian version of Optometry by empowering members to do researches and hence develop a statistical effect of blindness, causes of such blinding conditions, develop a model of practice, browbeat our professional heads (ODOBN & NOA) into growing some teeth, ensuring our state chapters of Nigerian Optometric Association is fully represented in state ministries of Health... I will advice that another professional body, primarily for Professional Optometrists, be formed. This body should oversee professional Practice among Optometrists in Practice, we can call it Nigerian Optometrist Society (N.O.S.). Unlike ODOBN & NOA, this professional body would require a written exam to become a member! The examination should discuss the scope of practice and developments in visual health and general eye care. Also the body should be conducting an online examination annually for professional Optometrists.
We need to develop our school curriculum to embrace contemporary realities... We are not opticians, need is rife to prove that we are Optometrists, that we are truly Primary eye care Practitioners. There is need to equip our Schools with newer technological advanced instruments and employ fully motivated professionals relating to the general scope of our practice. We should advocate for residency programs and ensure that fellowship courses are institutionalized. N.O.S. school chapters should be involved in eye researches for students and intern Optometrists and it should be funded by the school and the body @ the national level. There is also a serious need to enforce a gold standard both in education and practice of Optometry in Nigeria. We need to specialize and hence become consultants in a particular aspect of eye care, if we aim @ becoming heads of Departments. The later is a prerequisite to forming a Department of Optometry in Health care setting!
We need a stronger representation in Ministry of Health than mere having an office there alone. Optometry can generate more money than most Professional bodies under Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria if properly packaged. All Optical services and resources should be supervised by Optometrists and dispensing Optician Board of Nigeria (O.D.O.B.N) and a fee should be charged for such services and payable to the coffers of the Ministry of Health! Including the funds generated from renewal of registrations, fees generated by N.O.S/ N.O.S.A (Nigerian Optometrists Society/ Nigerian Optometrist Students Association, if started!), fees generated by dispensing of lenses and other eye care services rendered by Optometrists in both federal and state owned hospitals (If more Optometrists are employed in Public health sector. Currently, they under-employed and under utilized in that sector!), funds generated from manufacturing of lenses both @ home and supervision of those imported into the country.
Finally, we should become fully independent of Ophthalmologists, especially in the area of competence development, professional growth and in practice...we should rather develop a complementary relationship in eye health care services with them. We need the Ministry of Health to wade into this chronic 'warfare' that has left eye care in the mercy of charlatans. The imbroglio between these two bodies is the most important factor that has reduced whatever the dreams of Vision 2020 both @ home and internationally...especially here in Nigeria. We are oppressed by them through that rebellious Decree 34 of 1989 which is very anti-Optometrist and should be totally over hauled and new clauses incorporated into it. Our academic chasm is so obvious that the Nigerian Optometrist is often academically intimidated into whatever name or role they wish us to play (they are the architectural design of O.D.O.B.N, like virus they replicate WHO we should be in practice & the last time I might remember, they don't bloody care about us, "@least the Ophthalmic nurse is there!". To achieve what 'Vision 2020 :Right to Sight' stands for, the current trend of Optometry practice should be updated by us, the constitution reviewed to change outdated clauses, develop a 'Nigerian Optometrist Society' to reposition Optometry professionally through research while ODOBN should supervise Optometry practice including resources and personel. NOA should be responsible both to the dispensing Opticians, Optometrists, Optometric technicians and other members in the eye health sector.
 I am not making any political nor sentimental contribution to the obvious discuss; am only stating the fact!
Take for instance the way unlicensed and even some licensed opticians invade people in their homes to make glasses for them, while @ the same time claiming to be healers of sight problems! They end up forcing many optometrists into the foray! What results? A desperate attempt to foist glasses and drugs on people without ethically considering our actions! We need to live up to our doctors status, most are self employed and cannot meet up financially with our peers employed by the state or federal government! There is no regulatory over sight mechanism in place by neither ODORBN nor NOA! They are two toothless bulldogs that cannot even bark...@ least not now; not yet! If am being biased in my opinion, why did Optometry in Nigeria not include its own clause in the recently passed National Health Bill? Why are state branches of NOA/ODORBN not fully assimilated into state ministry of healths just like NMA, Pharmasists, Lab scientists etc?
 Look @ this other scenario, an Ophthalmologist who seems to question our credibility in the field! Its always a thing of pride for them to undermine our efforts making it very easy for ophthalmic nurses and even cleaners in eye centres to atimes question our profession! I do not always blame them. Lets call a spade a spade, how many functional slit lamp biomicroscope do we have in Abia State university, school of Optometry now? Because as at 2006 there was no fully functional one in our clinic! How is Optometry learned in Madonna University? Is the school fully accredited to practice Optometry? Has the board visited the institution's school of Optometry for inspection? Credibility of some of our lecturers should be noted here too! In some instance, we often witness some of our lecturers who are not practicing! Optometry is a practical application of theoretical knowledge, I find it very improper for a lecturer not to have a practical knowedge of Optometry and still be allowed to lecture us! And many other sharp practices in our citadels of learning that go unhindered because no serious oversight by our regulatory bodies and absolute lack of "standards"!
It is a fact that a deep chasm exits between us and the Ophthalmologists, but the prejudice against the Optometrists by the Nigerian Medical Association and other allied health assoiations is frustrating!Yet it should not deter us from contributing our quota towards eliminating avoidable causes of blindness by 2020 and beyond.
We should remember that we just have about 9 years to get to year 2020...its rather absurd that we cannot claim any meaningful headway in halting the embarrassment blindness and visual handicap is wreaking on us! We have been busy boxing shadows...Posterity needs more than these from US! Great Optometry in Nigeria!
concluded!