As optometrists and optometry students, much of our work and training takes place in clinics and consulting rooms, where equipment, testing protocols, and structured appointments guide the way we deliver care. But sometimes, the most meaningful lessons happen outside of those familiar settings.
In this reflection, Young Optometrists member and final year student Ibtisam Shahbaz shares her experience providing a rural home visit for a patient living with low vision.
Titled “Care from the Living Room Couch: A Student’s Reflection on Low Vision Care,” her story highlights how stepping into a patient’s home can shift our perspective on accessibility, independence, and what truly patient-centred care looks like.
Care from the Living Room Couch: A Student’s Reflection on Low Vision Care
As a final-year optometry student, much of my clinical training has taken place in consulting rooms, where vision is measured in charts and numbers. Recently, I was fortunate to be able to participate in a clinical experience that extended beyond the everyday clinic door.
Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to join in on a home visit in regional Victoria, 1 hour north from Bendigo, with Vision Australia alongside an orthoptist and an occupational therapist. We visited a patient living on his farm who has been a long-time sufferer of advanced glaucoma. In the familiarity of his own home, the real-world impact of vision loss became immediately clear. He described difficulty recognising faces, difficulty walking around the house and a heightened fear of falling. Though we learn these symptoms by textbook, hearing his lived experience personalised these symptoms and allowed for greater empathy and discussion, in the comfort of the patient’s living room.
Within this setting, the low vision care transformed from theory into something personal. The patient was an enthusiastic audiobook listener, so we introduced him to the Vision Australia app and a tabletop device that could read content aloud. We demonstrated handheld magnifiers to assist with mail, letters, and bills, and explored practical strategies such as high-contrast labels, tactile rubber bands to identify pantry items and camera-to-speech technology to help him determine what was in the fridge. The guiding principle throughout was simple: bigger, bolder, and brighter.
What struck me most was the difference it made for the patient to trial these aids in his own personal space. Seeing how he would use them, rather than imagining their benefit in a clinic, highlighted the true value of home-based care. These interventions were not about restoring sight, but about restoring quality of life.
This experience also reinforced the critical importance of interdisciplinary collaboration. The ophthalmologist had provided surgical management, the optometrist refractive support and the orthoptist and occupational therapist supported daily function through low vision rehabilitation. Together, they formed a model of care that placed the patient at the centre.
For me as a student, this visit was a turning point. It reminded me to see patients as people living complex lives shaped by their environments, routines and values. It also strengthened my commitment to outreach, to support access to person-centred care for those who need it most!
If optometry is about improving vision, then experiences like this remind us that our true purpose can broaden to improve lives. Sometimes the most meaningful care begins not at the slit lamp, but in the quiet understanding of a patient’s lived experience.
Written and photographed by Ibtisam Shahbaz
