While I’ve always known I wanted to work in healthcare, it wasn’t until I worked at Somerville & Merrin during my high school years that I realised optometry was something I could see myself doing as a long-term career; I enjoyed the concept of meeting different people and their families and providing a service which can really help people function in their day to day lives.

So I completed high school and off I went, moving down to Adelaide to study Optometry at Flinders University.  My journey to becoming a qualified Optometrist with therapeutics endorsement involved a 3 year Bachelor degree followed by a 2 year Masters degree, which I completed in 2020.  

Before and during my studies I worked as a Personal Carer and Assistant in Nursing in residential aged care. Working in the aged care industry furthered my passion in providing community and in-home optometric care. In a residential environment where people rely so heavily on glasses to read or participate in activities, it was frustrating to see residents with broken glasses, missing glasses or even treatable eye conditions that were untreated or not monitored. Somerville & Merrin have been providing in-home eye examinations for many years now, and I hope to assist with this service to ensure all people in our community can see well and maintain their full quality of life.

Throughout my university life I was amazed by how many people have no idea of what we do as optometrists!  There have been many conversations where people think all we do is ask “1 or 2?” and prescribe glasses.  Little do they know how much we studied for our therapeutic qualification to be able to diagnose and treat red eyes, sore eyes, gunky eyes, you name it – and if we're not able to treat you then we can point you to the best person who can. In this way we can provide a full scope of Optometric care.

I chose to join Somerville & Merrin because I wanted to work where I know I can provide quality, personalised care to every patient. I know I can always rely on our support staff to provide the best service possible and make every patient feel welcome and cared for.

Thank you for reading a bit of my story and I look forward to meeting more of you!

Kate Merrin

Optometrist