World Orthoptic Day

World Orthoptic Day falls on the first Monday of each June and is a day when orthoptists globally promote their profession and cerebrate the fantastic work they do.

It is organised by the International Orthoptic Association (IOA), made up of 15 member national professional organisations and 6 associate member organisations.

World Orthoptic Day 2022 – Orthoptists in the Wild!

The theme for this year represents our emergence from the isolation of the pandemic and meeting in-person once again: “Orthoptists in the Wild”.

• The IOA are once again running their always popular orthoptic selfie competition. It’s very simple: take your best selfie that relates to this year’s theme, for example, wearing an eye patch, using an occluder, or using prisms, then post it on Twitter! Be sure to tag us and the IOA Twitter account, using the hashtag: #orthopticselfie.
• This year, the IOA are also challenging colleagues from all over the world to take the ‘Orthoptic Workout Challenge’. You can become an “Orthoptist Influencer” by creating a TikTok video or Instagram Reel completing a series of exercises, with or without the music of your choice. Find out more here.

Greener Orthoptists

Here at BIOS, we’re going green for this year’s WOD, to promote the importance of sustainability and the role of orthoptists in reaching the NHS Net Zero target. We’re encouraging our members to get involved:

• Visit our new sustainability pages on the BIOS website and start a discussion in your department about what you can do to reduce carbon emissions
• Let us know what you’ve been doing already on social media
• Share your case studies with us so we can build a bank of examples to support the profession lead the way in sustainability

You can find out more about Net Zero NHS and what you can do as orthoptists here.

If you have any questions, get in touch at sustainability@orthoptics.org.uk

Want to get involved on social media?

Much of the fun on World Orthoptic Day, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, is online. If you’re not already active on social media, there could not be a more perfect time to start! More Orthoptists on social media means more people talking about orthoptics – this can only be a good thing for the profession.

There’s a summary of some of the social media highlights of 2021 here.

In order to support you, we’ve put together a (very) brief introduction to getting started on social media, including an overview of the main platforms, tips on getting started and guidance on keeping professional.

• Take a look at our social media guide here
• Download resources for sharing on social media here.

Promotional Resources

If you want any further inspiration for promoting Orthoptics on June 6th, take a look at the following:

• Promotional resources, highlighting the importance of orthoptics
• Careers resources
• Find out about our current campaigns and policy work 
• Our public information is hub is full of accessible information on orthoptics
• You can watch our videos from previous WODs on our YouTube channel here.

If you have any questions or there’s any way we can help, please do get in touch by emailing richard.huzzey@orthoptics.org.uk.