Becoming confident in your practice comes from more than just years of experience.
1. Lean on Your Community
Most senior practitioners are happy to advise, ask your colleague but if you don’t have anyone around invest in mentorship - seek out who resonates with you and follow them, ask them questions, sign up for their courses, be in their vicinity when you can!
Physio Mentors are your community, by becoming a member, you will have access to senior practitioners and their community as well as other practitioners going through the program at the same time. With in-person and online resources, your community is literally at your fingertips.
2. Prioritize Learning
Make a list of the courses/topics/skills you want to learn/improve on and seek out the courses that will provide that for you, but also block out time in your life to review prior learning. So much of what we learn on courses gets shelved with the books we received on the course - regularly schedule review time so you maximize your return on investment!
The online clinical discussions are a great way to schedule this time in. In many of our calls we go over interests, goal setting and future course planning. We also love hearing what you learned and what better way to consolidate your learning than to share it with us and your community.
3. Budget in Continuing Education
Determine what is realistic for you and your financial and time budget per quarter or year and then seek out the courses that fit into that budget and fit into the categories of your interests.
4. Practice, Practice, Practice
Find a friend on the courses you’re taking or at your clinic and make them your practice partner. Accountability is a great way to make sure you stick to your study schedule, and colleagues/friends who are on the same page make great accountability partners. Joining a mentorship program like ours will allow you to practice with a senior practitioner and get direct, real-time feedback!
5. Practice in Practice
It is completely ok to let your patients know you just learned this new skill and would like to try it on them - patients LOVE being guinea pigs and love that you are learning new things. So practice on them!
Don't Try to Fake it 'Till You Make it
Patients can sense inauthenticity and this will erode their trust in you. It's totally ok to say you don't know - you can say you're going to look into it, ask a mentor, do some research. Patients will appreciate the extra effort you're going through to help them get better.
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