5 Things to Do When You Start Practicing
Updated: Mar 6
You've graduated and it's time to start practicing on your own! It's an exciting and scary time, so we'd like to make 5 recommendations for how to jump into your practice.
Find your tribe
Who are your people? The ones you can bounce ideas off of, ask questions about difficult cases, review treatment plan ideas, help you build confidence in your patient interactions, etc. Mentorship is a really great way to find your people, which is exactly why we created our program!
Book in YOU time
It's easy to get carried away with trying to pay debt, save up for a house, etc. and make yourself available 24/7 but that's a recipe for burn out. What recharges your battery? Make sure you book that in first!
Decide what kind of practice you want to have
How long do you want your first visits to be? And follow up visit? What kind of money would you like to earn (now, in a year, in 5 and in 10yrs)?. What are your life goals? Is the value you are providing in line with your experience (ie realistic financial goals - can’t expect to earn 100K in their first year out)?
Taking time to think about how you want your practice to operate helps to forge a path of getting there, and helps you to enforce boundaries when things aren't aligning with your vision! We help our members map out their vision and the steps they're going to take to get there, which can be a huge help.
Schedule a yearly reflection/review of accomplishments and goals (or semi annual or quarterly or all)
Looking back is almost as important as looking forward. How else will we know how much we've grown? Take time at the end of the year to review everything you've achieved against the goals you set out for yourself. It's incredibly motivating and helps to start the new year on the right foot! We incorporate this into the mentorship program, finding review times that suits your needs, with at minimum an annual review at the end of each year.
Cut yourself some slack
You just graduated and are entering real practice, pat yourself on the back! What a massive achievement! Now, to face real patients and take on your own treatment plans. If that sounds scary, it is and we've been there. We want you to know that competence and confidence in your craft takes time. As long as you take steps to learn, practice and review, you are doing great even if you're not sure how effective your treatment is. Don't put too much pressure on yourself and know that if you are showing up, doing the work behind the scenes and empowering your patient you are doing a great job. We created the mentorship program to help practitioners build their confidence and their competence and feel like they have a team behind them every step of the way.