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For many optometry students, graduation comes with one of the biggest career decisions they’ll ever make: Should they pursue an optometry residency or enter practice immediately? While starting a career offers immediate financial rewards, an optometry residency can provide advanced clinical training, specialized expertise, and the confidence to manage complex patient care.
In this Defocus Media Podcast, Dr. Darryl Glover sits down with Dr. Whitney Powell to share her journey from optometry school to practicing in an OD/MD referral center, offering practical advice on choosing the right residency, navigating the application process, and aligning training with long-term career goals. Through firsthand experience, she explains how intensive mentorship, high-volume clinical exposure, and collaboration with ophthalmologists helped shape her career and why the right residency can become a launching pad for clinical excellence and exceptional patient care.
Topics Covered:
Why Consider an Optometry Residency?
Dr. Powell knew early in optometry school that she wanted to continue her education beyond graduation. Without prior experience working in an optometry practice, residency offered an opportunity to build confidence, gain advanced clinical experience, and explore the type of practice that best fit her career goals.
Rather than focusing on the temporary financial sacrifice, she viewed residency as an investment in her future. The experience ultimately opened doors that would not have been available otherwise, particularly in ocular disease and collaborative OD/MD practice.
Choosing the Right Residency Program
One of the most valuable pieces of advice from the conversation was to start with your long-term career goals.
Instead of choosing a residency based on location or reputation alone, Dr. Powell recommends asking:
- What type of patients do you want to treat?
- What practice setting do you see yourself in?
- Which residency will challenge you the most?
After completing an externship at an OD/MD referral center, she realized that collaborative medical eye care was exactly where she wanted to practice. That experience guided every residency application she submitted and ultimately positioned her for the career she enjoys today.
What Is Life Like During Residency?
Residency is demanding, but it provides an unmatched level of clinical exposure.
Dr. Powell described long days filled with postoperative care, surgical consultations, glaucoma management, cataract evaluations, and complex ocular disease. Working alongside experienced optometrists and ophthalmologists meant seeing a high volume of diverse cases while receiving continuous mentorship.
That combination of repetition and supervision helped her develop clinical confidence much faster than traditional practice alone.
As she explained, residency provides the “reps” that prepare new doctors to manage busy clinics efficiently while delivering high-quality patient care.
How Residency Accelerated Her Career
Following residency, Dr. Powell immediately secured a position in the same type of OD/MD referral center she had trained for.
She credits residency not only for expanding her clinical skills but also for helping build professional relationships that led directly to employment opportunities. The concentrated patient exposure has often been compared to gaining three to five years of traditional clinical experience in a single year.
Today she manages complex ocular disease, works closely with surgeons, and helps patients throughout their surgical journey—all because residency prepared her for that level of care.
The Value of Collaboration
Rather than viewing optometrists and ophthalmologists as competitors, Dr. Powell believes they complement one another. By trusting each other’s expertise, both providers deliver more comprehensive care while ensuring patients receive the right treatment at the right time.
For students interested in medical optometry, residency can provide an ideal pathway into these collaborative practice environments.
Optometry Residency vs. Entering Practice: Which Path Builds the Strongest Clinician?
An optometry residency is not the right path for every graduate, but for those pursuing advanced clinical skills, specialty care, or collaborative practice, it can be a career-defining investment.
As Dr. Powell emphasized, the ultimate goal is simple: become the best clinician possible so you can better serve your patients. Sometimes, taking one extra year to grow can create opportunities that shape an entire career.
"Focus on how it's going to help you in your future and your career and really set you up for your success." - Dr. Whitney Powell
Additional Resources
Interested in learning more about the optometry residency journey? Explore these trusted resources:
- Optometry Residency Match (ORMatch): Official residency application and match process
- Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO): Residency information, timelines, and guidance for optometry students
