Zoe Deuxberry

Tell us about yourself
I grew up in Sydney and was born in Spain. When growing up, I was always interested in anything health or medical related. My Abuela used to be an army nurse, my mother worked in the medical device industry and when I was 11, my dad broke hip while skiing meaning at the young age of 34 he had to get a hip replacement!

When finishing school, I was not sure where I wanted to go, so I did an undergraduate degree in Medical Science. I ended those three years still not knowing what I wanted to do! But I went to a UTS Postgraduate Information Night and learnt about Orthoptics. It was a field I had never heard about, but the sales pitch got me hooked and I applied, and I am glad I did because I have really loved it!

What are you passionate about?  
Through doing a month-long placement in Darwin, I have realised I have a real interest and passion for remote health. Being able to provide services to people who live remotely is really rewarding.

I also find strabismus (eye turns) incredibly interesting and love working with children and seeing how they improve with exercises and other management options. Giving people the chance to improve their vision or help stop or slow down the progression of vision loss is really great. Vision is something many people take for granted and many think that vision loss is only a problem for the elderly – when really, vision loss can happen at any stage of life, which is why it is important to take care of it.

What inspired you to study this degree?  
Orthoptics is a growing field; not only in Australia, but in other countries around the world. I chose to study orthoptics because it is an allied health, it means I have the opportunity to see, manage and treat patients alongside working with Ophthalmologists.

It is also a job that is flexible and allows for a great work-life balance. Due to the limited spots for learning, it is also a degree that can take you both around Australia or the world, where the degree is recognised.

Why did you choose to study at UTS? 
I chose UTS because it is the only university in the South-Asia Pacific that offer Orthoptics as a postgraduate degree!

What is the most rewarding aspect of the course?  
The part I love most about the course is how the teaching staff do not treat you like students, but as future colleagues – they really want you to succeed and become competent workers. This has also helped by the relatively small cohorts and plenty of hands-on practical classes. There is always someone willing to help, along with having online Facebook groups with the cohort, where everyone helps each other out, as we all want each other to succeed as well.

There isn’t any competitiveness as we all help bring each other up to ensure that the people we are working with are people we know are the best orthoptists they can be.

What do you hope to achieve in the future? 
I am hoping to work in the hospital system, however that can get quite competitive. I like working in a hospital setting because you get to see every aspect of eye health and that keeps the work constantly new and refreshing, rather than becoming bored with the same thing everyday! I think coming straight from graduating, I want to keep all of my skills up and continue to learn about everything until a time where I may find an area I enjoy more.

What advice do you have for students who are considering the Master of Orthoptics?

You may think that there is not a lot to know about eyes, but there is and there is a wide range of different jobs available that can cater to anyone’s goals and lifestyles – from hospitals, private clinics, research, management, or medical device sales representatives.

In terms of the course itself: I’m not going to lie, it is hard work – you are squeezing a whole degree into two short years. It is very busy but achievable two years; full of hands on experience and plenty of clinical placements that will make you fall in love with the field.

Transcript

My name is Zoe and I'm studying a Master of Orthoptics. I got to the end of my Medical Science

degree and had no idea what to do. To be honest I had no idea what an orthoptist was when I first

heard of it and then when I found out about the course I thought it sounded pretty interesting.

And what made me want to do it was you get to interact with patients, you get to do some

management and treatment but you also get to work with doctors as well. And another selling point

at the time was that there's definitely jobs in the area and it's a needed profession it's a growing

area as well. In the word itself ortho is straight and optics is eyes so it started as a profession

to straighten eyes but here in Australia we're also taught an ophthalmic side of it which is

where we work with the ophthalmologists who are the eye doctors.

The Master of Orthoptics at UTS is a two-year course and in the first year and a half you learn all

of your content and then on top of that you also do research subjects

and from second semester in your first year you start going out on placement so you

spend almost as much time doing practical work as you do coursework.

And everything you learn in your classes is directly related to what you learn in practical classes.

And then on top of that you get such a varied amount of experiences through placement.

They try and send you to as many different types of places as they can, so different public hospitals,

private clinics, specialised clinics, so you get a really good understanding about all the different

areas that you can possibly go into. My advice for anyone considering orthoptics is that it's

a very rewarding career. Everyone's going to be behind you and everyone wants you to succeed.

It's definitely worth it and I've loved my two years and I'm very glad I did Orthoptics.

Find out more about studying Orthoptics at UTS