“Explanations can come to represent lenses through which we
view the world” (Denning, 2011, p. 191) From 2010 until 2013, exactly three
years to the day, I worked at an Optometry office. While there were leadership
flaws that attempted to mar my experience, I came to adore the patients and the
subject matter of eyes. One of the many interesting things about working in a
medical office is you see the whole human spectrum: shy people, young people,
mean people, elderly people etc. Some of the more interesting were the brave
people who would say to me, do you wear glasses? To which I would reply, no.
Then they would implore, well, do you wear contacts? Unceremoniously I would
gently shake my head no. Then my favorite question would be, so why do you work
here? At first this question made me feel like an imposter. I understood the
underlying question, if you have never experienced wearing glasses, how could
you possibly know anything about them?
I was looking for a job and I had an unusual amount of
friends all working at the same place. They asked me if I wanted a job and
naturally I was hesitant for the reason of not knowing anything about glasses.
It was a trainable position, in fact it was preferred that you needed to be
trained. They shared their knowledge with me. Suddenly this world of vision and
eye health opened up to me filled with concepts I never imagined before. There
was so much more than just wearing glasses. Post operative surgery care,
cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma, lasik surgery, eye problems,
refractions, dilations and the list just continues. Of course, vision
correction was the most obvious reason patients ended up patients. The term
glasses, as a concept, was just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many types
of frame materials, face shape matters, nose pads or none, single vision,
bifocal, trifocal, progressive lens, lens coatings, anti-glare and of course
care and repair. Part of my job was to do phone triage for the office. When
patients called, I would obtain the information pertaining to their issues
based on questions I would ask to determine how emergent the situation was and
to give knowledge and instruction depending on what I heard. Not long after
taking the position I found myself a walking eye encyclopedia.
Something I found myself passionate about was sharing the
knowledge I had so that I could improve the lives of the patients. I realized
the patients were the people in my community; a very large portion of the
community, actually. Some were so blind they could truly wreck their car and
kill someone. Some yearned to see the faces of their families. Not being able
to see well is something that can make life very difficult and many depend on
their glasses as a tool to allow them to do anything from basic functions to
more complicated processes. Many people told me that if they could not see,
they could not do their job.
It was astounding to me how little people knew about the
things they wore on their faces everyday, all day and have been doing so for
possibly decades. Although I did not specifically train in optical, I acquired
the knowledge to share and took opportunities with each patient whether asked a
specific question, during small talk or during checkout to improve their
glasses experience. I had many adorable patients and I would like to tell them
a quick rundown about things you may not realize about your glasses, how to
care and how to repair. They were genuinely pleased with how much I cared about
their vision and that I was giving them information to improve their lives.
In our office, it was our goal to provide the best quality
products that could simulate as close to the human eye possible. Each year vast
improvements are being made, however the intricacies of the eye are fully able
to be captured. For instructional purposes, most of the glasses were made with
Crizal, a built in coat that varies in levels that reduces glare, improves clean
ability and comes with a warranty. (FYI, fun tip, never use superglue to repair
your glasses, it voids the warranty. You are welcome, world.)
I knew when patients reached for the cleaning cloths or the
cleaning spray, it was a great time to talk about how to clean glasses. I would
say to them, I see that you are buying cleaning spray and a cleaning cloth, but
do you know the best way to clean your glasses? I bet you would never guess
what I am about to tell you. What you do is take dish soap, like Dawn, and warm
water and wash your glasses like you are washing the dishes. In fact, you can
even wear them right into the shower and use that soap, too. Just do not let
the water be too hot because you can craze the lenses, which is many micro
fractures in the lens that cannot be removed. The grease cutting agents in the dish
soap cuts the natural oils the human face has that is constantly rubbing into
your glasses. To dry them, a clean cotton cloth will do the trick. In the
office, we use cut up old t-shirts. Make sure to dry the temples well so that
your screw holding your lenses into your frame does not rust. The spray is
great for when you are out and about and need to quickly take care of a smudge,
but with your Crizal coating, a cleaning cloth will be able to take off
fingerprints quite easily. Also, don’t forget that you can throw your cleaning
cloth into the washer. It gets weighed down with oils, too. Just do not use
fabric softener because it will not react with your lenses very well. The
washing of both your lenses and cleaning cloths will make random daily cleaning
much easier because you are not smearing the dirt and oils back and forth, they
are actually removed.
Sharing this knowledge made wearing glasses a little easier
for the patients. It is hard to have the best vision possible when you are
looking out dirty windows. It also improved health. There are many skin
ailments and hygiene is important for care and prevention. Denning states that
knowledge sharing occurs countless times every day and during this time period
of my life it truly did. The act of knowledge sharing continuously required teaching
individuals on a one-on-one basis repetitively through the same explanations,
but was worth it knowing they could make these industry standards of care part
of their routines. Denning also says that through “the acquisition of this new
experience, existing thoughts and beliefs can evolve. This is how we learn, and
this is why the transmission of knowledge is largely made up of storytelling.”
(Denning, 2011, p. 184) My hope was that patients would eventually pay it
forward and possibly teach someone else in their lives. What you teach one
person may teach many people. Spreading the knowledge around is much better
than spreading the dirt and oils around on glasses lenses.
Reference: Denning, S., (2011). The
leader’s guide to storytelling; Mastering the art and discipline of business narrative.
San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass.
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