UK Locum Optometrists: Is Your Near Vision Card Secretly Slowing You Down?

While standard N-point or Times Roman cards have been our go-to for decades, they are often inefficient and can be confusing for our patients. If we want to transform our workflow and provide a more accurate assessment, we need to look closer at the tools we use every day.

A modern, well-designed near vision chart can be the difference between a clunky refraction and a seamless one.

The Problem with Standard Near Vision Cards

Most of us have dealt with the frustrations of traditional cards. Here is why they are often working against us:

• Inefficient Testing: Finding the smallest line often involves too much trial and error. If the smallest text isn't logically placed at the bottom, we waste time. Furthermore, we lose minutes when patients insist on reading an entire paragraph—which is rarely clinically necessary.
• Patient Confusion: Patients often get "stuck" on the words themselves, which introduces a confounding factor when we are trying to assess pure visual acuity.
• Inconsistent Spacing: Letter and line spacing isn't always standardized on old cards, making it difficult to get a consistent, repeatable measurement.
• False Positives: If a sentence is cohesive, patients can "guess" the next word based on context. This gives us a false sense of their actual vision.

Our Solution: A Smarter Way to Test

We believe a near vision card should be designed for the clinician, not just the printer. To fix these issues, we need to shift our approach:

1. Use Simple Vocabulary: We should use words even a four-year-old can read to remove literacy as a barrier.
2. Randomise the Words: By stringing random words together instead of cohesive sentences, we eliminate "guessing" and get a true measurement.
3. Adopt LogMAR Style: A LogMAR layout visually guides the patient to the smallest line. This allows for a smaller chart, which is vital for varifocal wearers—it ensures we aren't accidentally testing their distance zone with large, high-placed letters.
4. Make It Reproducible: Our tools should be printable. If we lose a card or it gets damaged, we should be able to replace it instantly.

Upgrade Your Test Room Today

We've already done the hard work for you. Within the "Smart Locum’s Toolkit" at www.theoptomcoach.com, we have designed an accurate, crowded, simplistic LogMAR-style reading card.

The best part? It’s designed to be printed directly from your test room printer. No more waiting for orders or overpaying for plastic cards.

Visit the website today and let's make our testing more accurate and our days more efficient.