Professional opportunities

Professional opportunities

This master's degree extends and reinforces the professional competencies of opticians and optometrists in the areas of specialisation.

The career opportunities of the master's degree in Optics and Optometry may include the following:

• Technical supervision of opticians' shops and work as an optician/optometrist in public or private healthcare centres (general practice, ophthalmology services, ophthalmology surgeries or clinics, and optometric offices).
• Research in public and private centres and institutions.

Competencies

Generic competencies

Generic competencies are the skills that graduates acquire regardless of the specific course or field of study. The generic competencies established by the UPC are capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship, sustainability and social commitment, knowledge of a foreign language (preferably English), teamwork and proper use of information resources.

Generic competences

On completion of the master's degree, graduates will have acquired the following generic competences:

• They will have learnt the foundations and optical techniques on which advanced assessment of visual function rests and recent advances in the instruments used in the field of vision. They will have acquired specialist knowledge of the operational principles of devices and developments in engineering and the scope of their application.
• They will have assimilated and learnt to follow the necessary vision research methods in clinical and laboratory settings.
• They will have acquired advanced knowledge and specific criteria for clinical intervention for assessment, differential diagnosis and treatment of visual and eye conditions in the optometric field. This enables them to specialise in clinical areas of visual care.
• They will be familiar with the characteristics of the components and determinants involved in public health, particularly primary and specialised healthcare.
• They will be able to use their knowledge of visual conditions stemming from systemic and neurological diseases, ocular adnexa disorders, refractive and ocular surgical procedures and their indications and contraindications, and patient monitoring procedures.
• They will be capable of implementing their knowledge of pharmacovigilance and criteria for clinical intervention in clinical healthcare practice.
• They will have obtained a thorough knowledge of visual perception (spatial, temporal, colour and movement vision) and binocular perception.

Specific competences

On completion of the master's degree, graduates will have acquired the following specific competences:

• They will have acquired the specialised clinical skills needed for the provision of care for specific populations.
• They will have acquired the knowledge necessary for pre- and post-surgery optometric management of refractive and eye surgery patients.
• They will be able to carry out optometric monitoring of patients with visual conditions and functional implications caused by ocular, systemic and neurological diseases.
• They will be able to identify the impact of systemic and neurological diseases on the eye.
• They will be able to identify the impact of disorders and diseases of the surrounding structures on the eye.
• They will be familiar with procedures for the most common types of eye surgery, including refractive surgery.
• They will know the indications and contraindications of these procedures and visual aspects of post-surgery monitoring and control.
• They will be able to identify mechanisms of action and tissue and eye involvement in the main adverse visual reactions.
• They will know the potential clinical applications of these mechanisms.
• They will understand the latest advances in visual neuroscience.
• They will be able to apply optical principles of operation and determine the range of use and limitations of instruments used in optometric practice, ophthalmology and advanced eye surgery.
• They will understand and be able to apply the optical metrics used to assess visual function, incorporating recent advances based on the measurement of the wave front, the characterisation of aberrations and quality metrics.
• They will be able to apply the methodology and procedures of scientific research in the field of vision.
• They will understand the behaviour and be able to list the risk factors related to the presentation of different visual dysfunctions in the population, as well as understanding the use of epidemiological techniques in their research.
• They will be able to apply the rules of ethics in scientific studies of living beings, rules which are especially relevant to the design and execution of clinical trials.
• They will have specialised in one of the subject areas of the master's degree.
• They will have applied and complemented their prior learning.
• They will have put their skills to the test in a real working environment.
• They will have received advice on entering the world of work.
• They will have acquired entrepreneurial skills.
• They will have integrated the competencies acquired during the master's degree and have had them assessed.