Do you have an ethical autopilot?

March 13, 2025 Alli Campbell

Optometry and ophthalmic dispensing are both recognised as highly ethical registered professions. Even if we were not required to complete at least one ethical CPD point per cycle to maintain our registration, we would still retain ethical behaviour as our default – thinking before we act and speak. Here are some ethical behaviour elements to consider.

 

Privacy and business protection

 

Data protection was always important, but even more so in today’s digital world. We are trusted to keep important personal details secure, so make it your habit to minimise the patient’s details being on screen unless you need them. All it takes is someone walking past your screen with a mobile phone and all that sensitive information can be snapped up and used for nefarious purposes.

 

Your business information also needs to be protected. We hear of increasing numbers of businesses being hacked, losing not just sensitive data but their reputation too. A moment’s lapse of concentration by clicking on a PDF attachment can allow hackers to freeze your entire system, to the point where you cannot work or even rendering the computer hardware unusable. ‘Ransomware’ is easily embedded in a PDF and can lie dormant in your system for months. Never click on a link unless you know exactly where it will lead. Raising your level of protection is highly ethical.

 

Developing a level of healthy scepticism when opening any attachment can protect you. If you are copying and pasting bank account numbers from a PDF, you need to be particularly vigilant. Hackers can embed code to modify the numbers when copied, so always check what you’ve pasted matches the original numbers. Also be careful when scanning QR codes, as hackers have started embedding malicious code there too. Think twice before you click.

 

Avoiding gossip is another aspect of your professional responsibility, whether it be on social media or casual chatting within or outside of work. For example, boasting about famous people who attend your practice is nobody’s business unless you have their express permission to do so. Everyone enjoys being in the know, but keep this phrase in your thoughts: loose lips sink careers. Keep the ACC television “Have a hmmm’ ads in mind! At the very least don’t be someone who can be described as having no filter. Stop and look around you before discussing a patient’s information out loud; think about who could overhear you. Would you return to where you thought you might be the person being discussed so openly?

 

Good quality record keeping

 

Quality record keeping is second nature to us, but it’s easy to become relaxed and just use the same acronyms you’ve always used. But what if the next person to read your notes isn’t you? Would they make sense to everyone?

 

Notes on a record without being identified with initials and a date are less than useless. Their relevance is lost and could be entirely wrong in the case of an insurance claim number or a patient who has called to advise they are experiencing visual disturbances but with no follow-up noted.

 

On records, be polite at all times – people have the right to read them. I’ve seen records from decades ago with all sorts of acronyms identifying a patient as rude or difficult. Thankfully, I have not seen those in the last 15 years.

 

Here’s an interesting one and worthy of discussion in your practice: I have seen ‘SOA’ (smells of alcohol) or ‘C₂H₆O’ (ethanol) on records. Is that relevant? Could vision/perception be affected by alcohol? Or is it inappropriate unless backed up by further notes and what has been discussed with the patient?

 

Make ethical behaviour your default

 

Dispensing ethically, to me, is straightforward: if the solutions you provide are in the patient’s best interest, you are behaving ethically towards them. If you consider dispensing only that which is beneficial to them, your ethical radar is working. Integrity is at the heart of ethical behaviour. One of the greatest feelings in life is when someone believes you to be worthy of their trust. It is handed to us by our patients, by our employers and ultimately by ourselves. It is a fragile thing – think about a time when your trust in someone was broken; how easy was it to regain it, if at all?

 

Retaining ethical behaviour as our default position means we have thought about and filtered out what is unethical, that we have considered the effects of our words, our actions and our behaviour.

 

Your ethical autopilot will protect data and business information, won’t gossip, will keep excellent records and provide the best optical solutions. But, most importantly, your ethical autopilot will have integrity. That is when our autopilot, our default behaviour, is truly ethical.

 

 

Alli Campbell is a dispensing optician and has been in optics since 1987. She started out in Scotland with Dollond & Aitchison, before moving to New Zealand in 2009 to work for Matthews Eyecare.