Collaborating Within the Practice Team

Within a practice, safe care depends on complementary roles-optometrists, dispensing opticians (DOs), optical assistants/technicians, and reception/admin staff-working to a shared plan.

Effective collaboration means pre-tests inform hypotheses, clinician findings shape dispensing recommendations, and aftercare advice remains consistent across the team. ^[1][2]

Roles, scope, and mutual contribution

Optometrists lead clinical assessment, differential diagnosis, and referral decisions, while DOs translate prescriptions into safe, functional, and cosmetically acceptable appliances. Optical assistants support measurements, pre-tests, device operation, and patient education within competence, and reception teams manage patient flow, capture essential history, and execute recalls. ^[1][2]

• Role clarity: Publish a scope matrix that maps tasks to roles and supervision levels, and pair this with signage at benches and name badges stating role. ^[2]
• Information flow: Adopt brief, structured handovers (e.g., SBAR) from pre-test to clinician and from clinician to dispensing, including the patient's priorities and red flags screened. ^[3]
• Shared accountability: When adaptation issues arise, the practice treats them as team problems-optometrist reviews prescription validity; DO reviews fitting/position of wear; assistants confirm usage advice was understood. ^[1][2]

Supporting colleagues under pressure

Busy clinics often produce queuing, interruptions, and multitasking. It helps to agree rules that protect safety: clinicians avoid entering results while a patient is disclosing symptoms; reception never triages beyond protocol; assistants pause non-urgent adjustments to prioritise red-flag walk-ins. ^[7]

Psychological safety matters.^[4][4]

Visible task boards clarify who owns which step (e.g., "awaiting OCT review - Dr A"; "collection counselling - DO B"). Teams can build redundancy by cross-training staff to cover critical handovers when a colleague is delayed.

Invite questions, thank colleagues for raising concerns, and debrief shortfalls promptly and constructively.

Collaboration is demonstrated in records: instructions to colleagues remain unambiguous ("Repeat IOP by GAT at 15:00, record method and CCT, escalate if ≥25 mmHg"). ^[6][5][1]

When patients observe respect between teammates, confidence in the service increases and adherence improves. ^[6][5]

References (numbered in text) Why we include references

1. Standards of practice for optometrists and dispensing opticians, General Optical Council Find (opens in a new tab)
2. Delegation, College of Optometrists Find (opens in a new tab)
3. Structured patient handovers - Emergency and acute medical care in over 16s: service delivery and organisation, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Find (opens in a new tab)
4. Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams — Amy C. Edmondson (Administrative Science Quarterly, 1999) Find (opens in a new tab)
5. Evaluating the Effect of TeamSTEPPS on Teamwork Perceptions and Patient Safety Culture among Newly Graduated Nurses — Asmaa Elwan Hassan et al. (BMC Nursing, 2024) Find (opens in a new tab)
6. Do Bedside Visual Tools Improve Patient and Caregiver Satisfaction? A Systematic Review of the Literature — Anupama A Goyal et al. (Journal of Hospital Medicine, 2017) Find (opens in a new tab)
7. A systematic review of the psychological literature on interruption and its patient safety implications — Simon Y W Li; Farah Magrabi; Enrico Coiera (Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2011) Find (opens in a new tab)