Join our team

Part-Time Optometrist – Brisbane North

2–3 days per week | Brisbane North | New graduates encouraged to apply

Special Eyes Vision Services is looking for an optometrist to join our small and growing practice in Brisbane North.

We provide optometry services for children and adults who may find it difficult to access a conventional eye examination, including people with intellectual disability, developmental disability, communication difficulties, cerebral visual impairment (CVI) and low vision.

This is a very different role from high-volume community optometry. Appointments are longer, the pace is deliberately slower, and assessments are adapted around the individual rather than attempting to get the individual to adapt to the eye examination.

No previous experience in disability, CVI or low vision is required. Full training and ongoing support will be provided. Graduate optometrists are warmly encouraged to apply.

We aren't necessarily looking for someone who already has the right skill set — we're looking for someone with the right approach who is interested in learning it.

The role

We are looking for an optometrist to work approximately 2–3 days per week. There is flexibility around both days and working hours, including the possibility of structuring hours around school drop-off and pick-up.

The role will include:

  • Comprehensive eye examinations for children and adults with disability

  • Adapting assessment techniques for people who are non-speaking or unable to participate in conventional subjective testing

  • Objective assessment of visual acuity, refractive error, binocular vision and ocular health

  • Prescribing and dispensing spectacles

  • Functional vision assessment

  • Preparation of NDIS functional vision assessment reports

  • Holistic assessment and management of low vision

  • Assessment for magnification and other assistive technology, including bioptic telescopes

  • Assessment of cerebral visual impairment (CVI)

  • Working collaboratively with families, carers, teachers, therapists and other health professionals

  • Clinical documentation and communication with other members of a person's healthcare and support team

There is no expectation that a new team member will arrive knowing how to do all of this. Training will be provided as needed, together with ongoing clinical support and mentoring.

Who we're looking for

More than previous experience, we're looking for an optometrist who is:

  • Patient, curious and comfortable doing things differently

  • Happy to spend time building rapport rather than rushing through a testing sequence

  • Interested in understanding how vision affects what a person can actually do in everyday life

  • Comfortable working with children and adults with complex needs

  • Able to think flexibly when conventional testing doesn't work

  • Kind and respectful in their communication with people with disability and their families

  • Interested in developing skills beyond those typically used in routine community optometry

  • Comfortable working as part of a small, collaborative practice

Applicants must hold, or be eligible to obtain before commencing employment, general registration as an optometrist with the Optometry Board of Australia. Final-year optometry students and new graduates are encouraged to apply.

Why join Special Eyes?

This role may particularly suit an optometrist who enjoys the clinical and problem-solving side of optometry but is looking for something different from a conventional retail environment.

You'll have the opportunity to develop skills in disability optometry, paediatric assessment, functional vision assessment, CVI, low vision and assistive technology, including bioptic telescopes, with one-to-one training and mentoring provided within the practice.

Our consultations allow time to work at the patient's pace. Sometimes a successful appointment means completing a comprehensive examination. Sometimes it means finding a completely different way to obtain the information we need. And sometimes the most important achievement is that a person who has previously found eye examinations impossible is able to engage with us.

The position is initially part-time, approximately 2–3 days per week, with flexibility around working hours and the potential for the role to develop as the practice grows.

Interested?

We'd love to hear from both experienced optometrists and graduates who think this area of practice might be for them.

Please send us your CV and a short introduction telling us a little about yourself and why this role interests you.

If you want to learn more or have questions contact Ursula:

Ph: 07 3544 6167; email: reception@specialeyesvision.com.au