Blog #2 - The Story Behind Physiomentor.......
We have all hired new graduates in our clinic at some stage and had the following frustrations:
1. Not filling their appointment book when you the owner have a waiting list
2. Graduates not selling stock when you can hear the patient asking about products
3. Graduates discharging patients after 1 -2 sessions because they feel they couldn't help them.
4. Taking them 4-6 months or longer to build a caseload and being profitable or just breaking even.
Does this sound like you?
I am Mellissa Salmond and I am the founder of PhysioMentor and I am alot like you. I owned a physiotherapy practice in rural Queensland for 8 years and in that time I have hired, mentored and trained new graduates. How come you ask? Well in a rural setting we struggled to attract experienced clinicians into our rural town so we relied heavily on hiring and running a business on new graduates as they were the only applicants applying for our available positions.
Over the years of hiring graduates I realised that what was missing to make them a successful private practitioner was structured mentorship in clinical and especially business skills. Being a private practitioner is a specialised field and something that is not trained at university, so it is up to us as business owners to create a profitable clinician. I went searching on-line for resources and programs for training physiotherapy graduates in private practice but found nothing. There is some great on-line learning but nothing specifically directed to graduates in private practice. There was a gap in the market that needed a solution.
I saw many other practices make mention that they have a graduate program, but on contact it was on an as per needs basis depending on the graduate and no business skills were trained only clinical development. Most clinics I had approached were conducting a monthly in-service only and mainly on clinical topics from a staff member that had been on a recent course. Some clinics even admitted that senior staff would often be too busy to offer mentoring sessions to graduates and many sessions were cancelled because they had to manage their own caseload or senior staff were not interested in mentoring young graduates.
I decided to develop a solution to this problem.
My first dilemma was the time I would have to dedicate to training and mentoring as I would have to take myself off a caseload to implement this program. It would of been appealing at this stage to have someone specialised in this area to come to my business and in discussions with me create a Graduate Development Program tailored to my business and then implement it.
I came to the realisation, that the skills a graduate was lacking the most or was not taught at university was business related skills necessary for thriving in a privatised environment e.g. marketing, customer service, selling, promotion etc.
Clinical skills of majority of graduates is at a good level for entry into private practice, it is the development and nurturing of their clinical reasoning that can only be developed with constant feedback and mentoring.
Being a private practitioner is a specialised field of physiotherapy and in order to transition a graduate to a private practitioner, time had to be allocated to a graduate to make them accountable for their input, treatment outcomes and income into the business.
The PhysioMentor Program was Born...
The investment of time and a structured program of learning for a graduate's first year in private practice was positively received by graduates and myself as a business owner as it was reflected in business revenue increases, staff satisfaction, client satisfaction and improved staff productivity and work ethic.
The PhysioMentor program encompasses business and clinical skills, mentoring, key performance indicators (KPI) monitoring, performance appraisals, supervision and feedback in a structured and consistent plan for up to 12 months depending on the graduate and KPI indicators.
We offer 3 tiers of the program to cater to the mentoring support your practice may require:
This is the ultimate mentoring program for private practices that need a customised Graduate Development Program for your business and wants a PhysioMentor to implement all of the mentoring, training and development so that you the business owner can get back to running your business.
This online program is developed to fast track your graduate in the business skills and clinical reasoning essentials to be a profitable, exceptional clinician for your business. It is a jam packed program delivered online via unlimited email access to a PhysioMentor, video tutorials/ webinars, portal access, graduate network and audio discussions.
The next round starts on Jan 9th 2017.
Access to this learning portal gives graduates access to specific material to benefit their first year in private practice. Access to pre- made exercise sheets for common conditions, rehabilitation protocols, business streams and unlimited videos, tutorials and audio files to up skill your graduate into a private practitioner.
In my history, a very profitable physiotherapy practice can be accomplished with young, inexperienced staff with the correct, structured training specific for private practice.
What do our graduates say?
Lizzie, 1st Year Graduate 2016 - You are encouraged and reinforced positively which gives you confidence in your overall ability within the clinic, both in regards to clients and self. Constant help is at hand when I needed it. The program integrated the business and clinical side very well during in-services, weekly quiz questions or from real life situations and discussions with my mentor. My transition into private practice was made much easier than my other fellow graduates. I would love to have this support next year as a 2nd year.
