COBC Newsletter  October 2021

AGM | Board Vacancy | COVID-19 Information | COBC & OAC
 

Annual General Meeting

Registrants and public are invited to attend COBC's Annual General Meeting and November Board Meeting via Zoom!

Wednesday, November 3
Board Meeting: 8:30 AM–12:00 PM
Annual General Meeting: 1:00–2:00 PM

Read the full announcement
 

Statement on misinformation

COBC has released a statement in response to misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and the public health measures in place to control its spread.

As a regulated health professional, you occupy a position of public trust. Your ethical and professional responsibility is to provide information and advice that is factual, backed by science, and directly related to your professional designation/scope of practice. This responsibility extends to professional and personal opinions and statements about COVID-19 that you share with others, including online and in the media.

Read COBC's full statement
 

COVID-19 resources

Throughout the pandemic, COBC has remained committed to providing our registrants with the most up-to-date public health information as soon as we have access to it.

COBC does not make decisions about public health measures; instead, we rely on the BC Provincial Health Officer, the BC Centre for Disease Control, and WorkSafeBC to make recommendations, which we pass along to our registrants. All guidance can be found on COBC's COVID-19 Resource Page, which is continuously updated.

Visit the COVID-19 Resource Page
 

Vacancy on the COBC Board

Are you a Licensed Optician in the Okanagan or Kootenays area? Are you interested in becoming more involved in the regulation of opticians in BC? Apply to join the COBC Board!

Find out more
 

Is your CCP cycle ending soon?

If you are currently in the third and final year of your continuing education cycle, you must fulfill all the requirements of your Continuing Competency Program (CCP) no later than December 31, 2021.

This program is self-managed, so you are responsible for ensuring that all steps have been completed in the online system.

This includes: taking the assessment(s), creating goals for yourself, finding and completing activities to achieve those goals, and reflecting on how it went.

Please log in to your profile on the COBC website to log your progress. If you have questions about CCP, you can visit our website to access guides and tools or contact Christopher Dodge, our Manager of Quality Assurance.
 


COBC & OAC: Understanding the relationship

Some regulated health professionals may not understand the difference between their regulator and their association. It's important to remember that the regulator operates primarily in the interests of the public, while the association supports and promotes the interests of health professionals themselves. As a Licensed Optician in British Columbia, your regulator is COBC (that's us!) and your association—if you choose to join—is the Opticians Association of Canada (OAC).

Regulator (COBC)

  • Manages licensure (registration and annual renewal)
  • Receives and resolves complaints
  • Administers quality assurance program (continuing competency)
  • Establishes, monitors, and enforces professional standards and ethics
  • Provides practice advice
  • Conducts inspections

Association (OAC)

  • Advocates for Licensed Opticians
  • Represents opticianry to government, employers, and other agencies
  • Offers continuing education, job board, conferences, and industry news
  • Provides professional liability insurance to members
  • Runs Canadian safety eyewear program

The OAC and COBC are two separate organizations. However, as the Licensed Optician serving as President of the OAC's BC Chapter, Claudia Rojas is also a registrant of COBC. This month, as we explore the regulator-association relationship, we'd like to introduce you to Claudia!

Meet Claudia Rojas

Claudia Rojas is a Licensed Optician committed to promoting eye care and eye health awareness. With over 20 years of experience in the optical industry, Claudia has worked with multinational optical retailers, private optometric practices, laser eye surgical clinics, as well as optical e-commerce. Her roles have involved consulting, process and project management, marketing, service and product development, human resources, supply chain, optical training, and operational management of eye clinics and optical retail stores.

Claudia joined New Look Vision Group in 2016 as the company expanded into the Western market, and currently serves as banner leader for the NewLook Eyewear network in western Canada.

Having served as vice chair of the COBC Quality Assurance Committee for several years, Claudia has contributed to the improvement of the standards of practice for opticianry to better serve the public. Claudia currently holds the role of Vice President of the Executive Committee of the Opticians Association of Canada (OAC), as well as President of OAC’s BC Chapter, where her goal is to contribute with her knowledge and experience to finding solutions to new challenges that Licensed Opticians face and meeting the needs of consumers.

As an advocate of various local and international non-profit social development programs, Claudia has had the opportunity to support and participate in various projects that aim to change lives by improving eye care and promoting eye health globally.

Learn more about the OAC   Contact the BC Chapter of the OAC
 

International Allied Health Professions Day

October 14 is International Allied Health Professions Day! This day of recognition was first established in the United Kingdom in 2018 and is also observed in several other countries, including Australia and New Zealand. This year, the BC Ministry of Health is recognizing and celebrating International Allied Health Professions Day for the first time.

Opticianry is one of more than 70 allied health disciplines providing highly specialized services to British Columbians. Opticians, alongside so many other allied health professionals, have risen to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic; the BC Ministry of Health would like to acknowledge your critical role in our health care system and thank you for your tireless efforts to keep British Columbians healthy.

 

Did you know?

A contact lens fitter must produce a contact lens record listing the contact lens specifications derived from a fitting. According to the Opticians Regulation Section 6(7), a contact lens fitter must provide this record to the client free of charge upon completion of the contact lens fitting, whether the client requests a copy or not.

College of Opticians of BC operates on the traditional, ancestral and unceded Coast Salish territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.

Unsubscribing from this email will revoke your consent to receive email correspondence from us as outlined in Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). We will no longer be able to send you important reminders pertaining to your licence, which may affect your registration with the College of Opticians of BC. Please contact us if you have any questions.