ABDO in the regions: North of England
Amy (far right) with students at the foreign body removal workshop at ABDO College
On a recent visit to ABDO College, Max Halford (ABDO clinical and policy director) and I delivered a foreign body removal workshop to a group of contact lens students working hard towards their forthcoming examinations.
The workshop served as a mini-taster for the ABDO extended services course – and we would encourage all qualified contact lens opticians (CLOs) to consider progressing towards becoming extended services CLOs if they wish to do so.
Proud achievements
ABDO’s regional leads are here to assist with queries and offer members support at every stage in their career. We are often looking for new opportunities to meet members, and so were delighted to be invited to attend and assist with the upcoming graduation ceremony in Canterbury. This will undoubtedly bring back memories for those of us who graduated in Canterbury Cathedral ourselves, and will be a chance to go ‘behind the scenes’ to see how this fantastic event is staged each year. Please do look out for us, and come and say hello.
We would like to wish all those about to graduate and become fully qualified many congratulations. Adding FBDO to your name is a huge achievement and something to be very proud of. This is the start of a rewarding career, with many opportunities available. Some of you will have already progressed in your career, and are about to qualify as a CLO. Congratulations on being able to add the additional letters CL to your professional post-nominals.
Meeting contact lens students at ABDO College
We would like to encourage all newly qualified members to utilise their ABDO membership and to look for opportunities to gain as much from your career as possible. Everyone has different priorities and interests, and there are plenty of options to suit these. This variety strengthens us as a profession. Being a dispensing optician is a vital role in practice, and a vocation that makes a difference to the lives of the patients you see daily.
Getting out and about
In my current role, I meet many fellow optical professionals and always find their career paths interesting – as no two stories are the same. Personally, my optical career became more varied once I began attending ABDO area meetings; the equivalent nowadays would be assisting the CPD team with a regional CPD event.
I was able to meet people I wouldn’t normally come across in day-to-day practice, and started to gain an understanding of what other opportunities were available. I met people who encouraged me to apply for additional roles and take on new responsibilities. I have always found the majority of those I have met in these circles to be amazingly encouraging – and this positivity is infectious.
For the regional leads attending the graduation, this will be an opportunity to not only meet graduates and ABDO team members – but also a rare opportunity to catch up face-toface. As we all cover different parts of the UK, you will very rarely find us in the same place at the same time. We will be taking advantage of this by meeting to review and plan our ongoing activities and strategies.
As you may be aware, following a recruitment process we are really pleased to announce the appointment of two new regional leads. Pauline Bradford is now regional lead for the South West of England, and Lynne Pulley is now the regional lead for the South East of England, which includes London. It is great to add their expertise, experience and enthusiasm to our team. Contact details for all the regional leads can be found on the ABDO website.
Amy Seaman FBDO CL PGDip is ABDO clinical and policy officer, and regional lead for the North of England.