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Norway
The Norwegian Orthoptic Society has 40 members and was founded in 1975. The title of Orthoptist has been protected in Norway since 1999, and orthoptists are authorised health personnel.
Orthoptists work quite independently in Norway, diagnosing, assessing, and treating children and adults who have squint, amblyopia and neurological conditions, as well as evaluating patients for squint surgery.
An orthoptist can work in an eye department or in private practice. A normal working week is 37.5 hours, with 5 weeks annual holiday.
In order to be able to work in Norway, an application for authorisation must be made to the State Authorisation Office (SAK: Statens Autorisasjonskontor for helsepersonell), and the language must be mastered.
There are several vacancies at present.
Norway does not have its own orthoptic training. The Swedish training at the Karolinske Institutet in Stockholm is for the whole Nordic area.
Norway is a very elongated country. In the northern part the midnight sun shines in the summer, and in the winter there is a dark period with no sun. It is not unusual to have snowfall all over the country in wintertime.
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