An undergraduate at the University of Delaware's College of Health Sciences, Sophia Eick has acquired considerable professional expertise while pursuing her nursing degree at the institution. Sophia Eick also volunteered with the Newark, Delaware-based Nurse Primary Care Center. In this role, she assisted individuals with hearing and vision checks as well as eye tests.

An eye exam consists of a set of tests performed in the eye to assess its ability to distinguish objects and to screen for eye disorders. Parts of the examination, such as obtaining a patient's medical history and doing the initial eye test, may be performed by a clinical assistant or technician.

Three basic tests are usually performed during an eye exam. These are:

Visual acuity test

Visual acuity is a component of total vision that relates to a person's ability to distinguish the shapes and details of what they see. They may test the patient to see how well they recognize a letter or symbol from a certain distance.

Eye pressure test

After numbing the eyes with eye drops, a technician or clinical assistant will lightly touch the front surface of a patient's eye with a gadget that emits blue light. This allows them to determine how much pressure is present inside each eye.

Eye evaluation

The eye's health is assessed practically simultaneously with the eye pressure test. The technician may use multiple lights or imaging to examine the front of the eye and the interior of each eye after the dilating drops have taken effect.