Mother-daughter team care for Whitefish’s vision

Naomi Barnes and her daughter Breanna Barnes knew they wanted to pursue careers in health care, but they also knew they didn’t like blood — both chose to become optometrists.

Naomi has been practicing in Whitefish for more than 30 years at North Valley Eye Care and Breanna recently graduated from college setting the path to join her mom at the practice later this summer.

“I had a weak stomach and don’t like blood,” Naomi says. “I thought being an optometrist would be interesting.”

Breanna quickly agrees, noting that she eventually did some job shadowing with her mom and another optometrist to confirm her decision.

“I was interested in health care and was looking into being a dentist or going into orthodontics,” she said. “But when I was job shadowing I fainted during a tooth extraction because of the blood.”

Naomi, who is originally from Butte, received her doctor of optometry degree from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, in 1988. She and her husband Frank have three daughters.

Breanna, who graduated from Whitefish High School in 2012, this spring completed her doctor of optometry degree at the Arizona College of Optometry of Midwestern University after earning a biology degree from Whitworth University in 2016.

Naomi began her practice in the office building that included a Ben Franklin store on Central Avenue. The building was largely destroyed in a fire in 1992, but portions of her office escaped. Her diplomas were scorched and had to be re-framed, but still hang on the wall of her clinic today on Second Street where she’s been ever since, and every so often she opens a patient file that was also scorched in the fire.

Naomi says being an optometrist has allowed her to be her own boss while working a flexible schedule to raise a family and also help people.

“I get to see a variety of great patients and some I’ve worked with for decades,” she said. “In the same day I might treat an infant all the way to someone in their 80s to 90s, and in the same day I help with someone getting glasses or diagnose an eye issue.”

Breanna is awaiting her credentials before she can begin working, but mother and daughter are already talking shop around the dinner table, and making plans for when she officially joins the practice. Breanna expects to provide new therapies, such as sports vision training that works on improving visual abilities for athletes such as eye-hand coordination, focusing and peripheral vision.

Breanna’s graduation picture in her lab coat has been hanging in the examine room of the clinic.

“My patients have been asking about her and a lot of people know she’s joining me,” Naomi says.

Breanna is ready to meet with patients.

“When you’re a student and a patient tells you did well that feels good, but you work with them once and you’re done,” she said. “In private practice you get to form a relationship — I’m excited to have that.”