- SF27, Plymouth Allied Health Centre, College of St Mark & St John, Plymouth, PL6 8BH
- +44 1752 587560
- nicola.szostek@plymouth.ac.uk

Profiles
Dr Nicola Szostek
Lecturer in Optometry
School of Health Professions (Faculty of Health)
- Optometry
- Eye health care
- Sight test
- Presbyopia
- Optometry education
- Eye aging
Email publicrelations@plymouth.ac.uk to enquire.
Lecturer in Optometry
Qualifications
Nicola Szostek graduated from Cardiff University with a BSc Optometry in 2009. She then worked in community optometric practice for four years, including a secondment as an Optometrist Practice Manager. In 2013 Nicola became a Clinical Demonstrator at Aston University, which sparked an interest in teaching and academia. Later that year Nicola joined the university of Plymouth to undertake a Post-graduate research position studying for a PhD entitled; 'Ocular Accommodation in Humans'. Alongside her research Nicola taught on first year and second year undergraduate modules at the University of Plymouth, whilst continuing to work in optometric practice.
Following the awarding of her PhD in 2017 Nicola joined the academic team at Plymouth full-time, and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Nicola has taught across all three years of the optometry programme and on post-graduate modules, she has a specialist interests in teaching ocular pharmacology and disease, law and ethics and clinical case management.
Professional membership
Association of Optometrists
College of Optometrists
Registered with the General Optical Council
Roles on external bodies
Education Visitor Panel member for the General Optical Council
Alcon Scholar
Teaching interests
Current Module Lead for
OPT604 Clinical Case Management Pharmacology and Ophthalmic Drugs
Previous Module Lead
Previous Module Teacher for
OPT402/OPT105 Clinical Optometry Skills 1
Also contributed too
PARA301 Refining Practitioner Skills for Patient Care
ADV710 Pathomechanics and the Rehabilitation of Gait and Balance (Post-graduate module)
Research interests
- Accessibility of eye care services for: marginalised groups, ocular emergencies, rural and coastal communities.
- Public perception of eye care and optometrists
- Clinical uses of the Accommodative Facility Test
- Ageing of the crystalline lens and ciliary body
- Effects of nutrition, UV exposure, smoking and exercise on the ageing of the crystalline lens/development of presbyopia
Grants & contracts
College of Optometrist Undergraduate Research Scholarship 2018 - £2000
Szostek, N, Buckhurst, H, Purslow, C, Drew, T, Collinson, A, & Buckhurst, P. (2018). Validation of Novel Metrics from the Accommodative Dynamic Profile. Vision. 2. 34.
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology: May 2018, Honolulu USA
Szostek N, Buckhurst H, Purslow C, Collinson A, and Buckhurst P. 2018 In vivo assessment of ciliary muscle morphology using swept source optical coherence tomography. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 59 (9) 2948.
British Congress for Optometry and Vision Science: September 2016, Ulster UK
Presentation: Optimising the calculation methods for analysing depth of focus from defocus curves.