Demographics and distribution of the optometry profession in Australia: 2011 to 2019.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: An assessment of the total number, demographics and geographic distribution of optometrists in Australia may inform policy to address the maldistribution of the workforce. BACKGROUND: Concerns have been expressed about the growth of the optometry workforce in the context of, in the last decade, the establishment of four new optometry programs in addition to the three long-standing programs. METHODS: This paper analysed data obtained from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency about registered optometrists during the period 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2019. The de-identified dataset included information about registered optometrists in Australia: their first year of registration, gender, year of birth (in five-year bands), optometry qualification, registration type including endorsement for therapeutic practice and the postcode of the principal place of practice. RESULTS: Data for 6,596 registrants were obtained over the study period during which the number of female optometrists increased significantly. The age profile of the profession shifted, with younger age bands becoming a significantly greater proportion of the profession. The majority of the profession comprised optometrists with a qualification from one of the three long-standing Australian optometry programs. Graduates of those programs accounted for 75.1% of registered optometrists in 2019, while 14.3% held a qualification from an overseas institution. The proportion of optometrists practising in major Australian cities was greater than the proportion of the population in those locations. A concomitant low proportion of optometrists, relative to population size, was found in regional and remote areas. CONCLUSION: Optometrists practising in Australia can be generalised as mostly female graduates of one of the three long-standing optometry programs holding general registration with a therapeutic endorsement, and with a principal place of practice located in a major Australian city. A significant maldistribution of the workforce was found that did not change significantly during the study period.

Demographics and distribution of new entrants to the optometry profession in Australia.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: An assessment of the total number, demographics and geographic distribution of new entrants to the optometry profession in Australia can assist planning for workforce requirements. BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, the number of registered optometrists in Australia has increased by 30.1 per cent, a rate that is greater than the population growth of the country (12.1 per cent). Concerns have been expressed about the size of the optometry workforce in a context of increasing numbers of graduating optometrists. This paper analyses data obtained from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) about new entrants to the profession and their initial practice location during the period 1 July 2010 to 30 June 2018. METHODS: A de-identified dataset was obtained from AHPRA that revealed the following characteristics of new entrants: qualification, gender, year of birth (in five-year bands), registration type, registration endorsement and principal place of practice including its Remoteness Area classification. RESULTS: Data for 1,680 entrants were eligible for analysis; 80 per cent graduated from an Australian university, 12 per cent graduated from the optometry program in New Zealand, and seven per cent were graduates of an overseas university. The remaining two per cent registered via the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement, although the dataset did not include the qualification. The United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland provided the majority of overseas entrants (60 per cent). Most (75 per cent) entrants commenced practice in a major Australian city. Graduates of Australian universities tended to commence practice in the state in which they trained or an adjacent state or territory. Juxtaposed on the data outlined above is the high proportion (42 per cent) of overseas-trained optometrists commencing practice in Western Australia. CONCLUSION: Coincident with the newer optometry programs producing graduates is the increased number of optometrists entering the Australian workforce over the past decade, with the majority commencing practice in major cities. Australia-trained optometrists tend to commence practice in the state where their training was undertaken. New entrants to the optometry profession can be generalised as graduates of an Australian optometry program, female, aged in their early-mid 20s and qualified for therapeutic practice.