College of Optometrists

Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Professional Conduct

The College Guidance has been reorganised following the independent guidance review in 2009. It is arranged in the following order: 

Section A:        Ethics and Guiding Principles;

Clinical Practice;
Section B:       Routine eye examination
Section C:       Examining different group of patients
Section D:       Examining patients with pathologies or medical conditions
Section E:       Examining patients with vocational needs
Section F:        Dispensing
Section G:       Contact lenses
Section H:       Refractive surgery
Section J:        Additional investigative techniques/procedures
Section K:       Drugs

The College Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Professional Conduct are continually reviewed to ensure they are up to date and represent current good practice.  Any revisions are drafted and then considered by the College’s Membership and Standards Committee (MSC) which meets three times per year.  They then go to the College Board for approval.  The MSC includes observers from the AOP, ABDO, FODO and the GOC.

The latest guidelines were published in July 2011. You can also view the previous guidelines held in the archive.

The following sections were updated in July 2011

A1– Professional integrity
A2 – The patient practitioner relationship
A4 – Patient-practitioner communication
A5 – Inter and intra professional relationships
A9 – Patient records
B2 – The routine eye examination
C3 – Examining the adult with learning disabilities
C4 – Examining the patient with dementia or other acquired cognitive impairment
C5 – The domiciliary eye examination
D5 – Examining and managing the patient with low vision
E1 – Examining patients with specific visual needs for task or occupation
K1 – Use and supply of drugs or medicines in optometric practice
 

You may download all the Guidelines as a zip file  July 2011 or individually.

Email the College to receive automatic notification of Guidance changes.