Content area
Full Text
As might be expected in such a diverse field, salaries for ophthalmic medical personnel (OMP) vary considerably. While ophthalmic administrators and leaders of OMP organizations do not completely agree on the importance of factors such as geography, practice or institution type, experience, and certification level, they do agree that all of these influence the salaries of ophthalmic nurses and technicians.
Ophthalmology, like all of health care today, has felt the reverberations of managed care but these tremors have been both boon and bust for OMP. While managed care cutbacks often lead to reduced salaries, the growth of ambulatory care centers and the trend to outpatient surgery appears to have positioned OMP well in both job security and opportunities.
Because salaries are influenced by so many factors, it is difficult to create a representative snapshot of the typical ophthalmic nurse's or technician's salary, and even the salary surveys of OMP organizations have not definitively captured the salary picture. An ATPO survey conducted several years ago did show that certification provides a means to higher salaries for technicians. While ASORN (American Society of Ophthalmic Registered Nurses) said it did not have a survey of salary ranges specifically for ophthalmic nurses, the ATPO study did include nursing-specific questions.
"Marketing" and intangibles
In response to the myriad changes in health care, both ophthalmic nurses and technicians must be more vocal about marketing themselves, said Trish Johnson, COMT, technical standards manager for the Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology (JCAHPO). It is important for OMP to promote their skills and indicate they do not mind traveling, she said, recommending that staff use their time wisely in a practice to learn everything they can.
Beth Hurley, RN, BSN, CRNO, nursing and business administrator at Scottsdale Eye Surgery Center and Phoenix Eye Surgical Center in Arizona, added, "A lot of people come in every day and do their jobs and may be good at it. But it's the people who come in and say 'Show me, tell me-why are you doing those things?' who will move up in the practice."
The intangibles that make up any good employee profile are also increasingly important. Ms. Hurley said when hiring an inexperienced nurse, she looks for traits such as initiative, motivation,...