How do you maximise the first few years after you graduate to kickstart your career? PART ONE

Do you have a plan?

I spent some time developing a model for the journey and think it is worth providing some explanation.  As you can see the model has four stages and is not necessarily linear and the timeline is relatively arbitrary. Almost any practitioner can see themselves at some stage of the journey at any time.

 You will not be thinking about the end of your journey but as Stephen Covey reminds us  “Begin with the end in mind”. This does not mean you work out your retirement now!! What it means is that you start with Stage one which is the development and achievement of clinical excellence. This will / should take up the first few years of your career and will underpin how your career develops.

To maximise the first few years of your career it is important to understand the need to grow as a person but also as a practitioner and as a worker.  Why is this important?

Growth will see you achieve important milestones:

-          Gradual increase in your income with better pay

-          The ability to attend courses and learn

-          The seeking of a mentor to help you

-          Great satisfaction as your list of patients grows with you

-          The early opportunities with sporting attachments

-          The development of your own unique selling proposition

Clinical Excellence

Being clinically excellent will not just happen. You need to develop that list of people who you see and achieve results with . Make sure you understand the importance of the consult.  I detail in my book two consult  models that you should research. One based on the traditional Subjective Objective Assessment Plan approach and the other based on a more  sales oriented approach. The venn diagram in my book illustrates this approach well. Clinical excellence should include learning more about clinical reasoning and manual handling.  Attend to both of those to increase your competence and effectiveness.

Planning

Planning is a key feature of your growth. Mentors can help you, but understanding how to set Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time bound (SMART) goals is a great place to start. Improve your time management by reviewing the time management matrix on my website here. The next part of planning should be the development of meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). They should be referred to monthly as you review your performance. Some examples might be based on the number of patients you see, the articles you attempt to read, referrers who have sent you patients, your plan to do courses through any given year, observations and mentoring sessions that you want to attend and be supported with by those you work with etc. If you set SMART goals then your monthly review should identify if the KPI’s have been met.

Your Working Environment

The environment you work in is a key element of your successful journey. It is not always easy to know you are in the right place where you will thrive but some things to consider in your place of work are:

-          Do I get a chance to have a say in matters in the business

-          Is there a formal education program for the practitioners

-          Is there a process of feedback both given and received

-          Are you seeing a variety of patents

-          Do you have the opportunity to ask your senior people for assistance.

-          Do you get shown new techniques you may be able to use in your treatments

The above is not an extensive list but provides you with some thoughts that will assist you to assess the work place you are working in.

There is much to think about after graduation so best to take on these suggestions slowly and work on one or two of them every quarter of the year with a plan to achieve many of them within the first two years of work.

IN PART TWO I will look at how you can develop referrer relationships, and a referral base, the importance of volunteering to learn, some of the concerns and issues that new grads face and  a summary the key considerations for new grads.

You can learn more about the themes and considerations for graduates in their first years out of your degree in my book which provides a roadmap from graduation throughout your career journey. Check it out on my website here www.michaelkenihan.com.au

https://www.michaelkenihan.com.au/book