Factors That Affect Students’ Decisions About Choosing Optometry as a Career. Narrative Review

Abstract

Summary
The purpose of this research is to learn about the perspectives of recent Indian optometry students on their professional route.
Methods: From 2005 to 2021, the phrases “optometry as a profession in India,” “career in optometry,” and “optometry in India” were searched in the PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases.
Results: The entire study is based on survey data. According to such studies, there were many more girls than boys. The majority of persons who took part in those studies agreed that there was a significant lack of awareness regarding optometry in the country.
Discussion: Optometry is a primary eye care profession that focuses on vision correction, ocular illness identification and prevention, and co-management of procedures involving the eyes. A variety of factors affect career selections. According to this review, students are impacted by a wide range of factors, including the course content, employment chances, societal reasons, individual goals, and peer pressure. Our analysis revealed that while the majority of students had heard of health-care professional programmes like medicine, dentistry, and nursing during their academic careers, but not optometry, only a small percentage of optometry students were aware of or knowledgeable about the profession before enrolling in the course.

DOI - https://doi.org/10.65525/SVUP.9788199956094.2026.48-59