When arriving at the eye care unit, patients often feel unsure of what is going to happen, anxious, and vulnerable. Many have never found themselves in a hospital setting before or have never travelled or slept away from home.It is an integral part of eye care to make sure a patient's experience is a positive one. This article offers suggestions for good, evidence-based, practice to improve this experience.Our suggestions should necessarily be adapted to local context: resource-poor settings are particularly challenging work environments and staff may need to display more ingenuity in working towards good practice, when striving to achieve the goals of VISION 2020.