Stage One for new Physiotherapy Graduates

When I was at Lifecare we established three levels of education for our practitioners. The initial stage was for graduates, 1 to 3 years into their careers. They were in the first stage of education which I call Clinical Excellence. 

It was important to have mentors who would teach these practitioners. I had guided Ross L through commencement of practice at Lifecare Prahran Sports Medicine Clinic and was fortunate to mentor him through stage one (with assistance from exceptional clinical mentors) and into Stage two commercial success. Just six years after graduation Ross was ready to fly!

I asked Ross if was interested in taking a new step, involving becoming a mentor and teacher of others. Despite his initial reluctance, Ross eventually agreed, thanks in part to some persuasive encouragement from me.

We were eager to commence level one mentoring with formal group sessions with the group of graduates from years 1 to 3 that were working at the Lifecare practices in Melbourne. In all we commenced with some eight graduates from six different practices. We named the sessions ‘manual handling and clinical reasoning’. 

I cover those aspects of learning in detail in my book 'The Health Practitioner's journey'. We identified that upon graduation these two aspects of practice need further teaching and by building up the skills in a group environment we believed we could facilitate greater clinical excellence in the graduate’s practices.

Learning in a supportive group of peers where you share what you know and learn together is a wonderful way to enhance your skills. Encouragement from both Ross and peers created an environment where the graduates rarely missed a session. 

The sessions also developed into an opportunity where participants could bring case studies to the session and collaboratively problem solve to find how to best treat or progress these patients in their recovery. A majority of those who participated found that their patient list grew quickly as they had acquired new skills that they applied to their practice. This also prepared them to enter Stage two, of Commercial success and they were well prepared with a solid base of clinical excellence.

Ross took to the challenge like a duck to water and contributed significantly to the development of these practitioners’ skill base. Equally importantly, Ross learnt valuable skills that he was able to apply to his own practice. Stephen Covery calls this approach three person teaching as I had assisted and trained Ross, he had trained his new grads and then encouraged them to share what they had leant to others at the businesses they were working in.

Structured learning needs to be interesting, relevant, and fit for purpose. By combining Ross’s acquired skills and engaging with a thoughtful, enthusiastic group of individuals who understood their position in their journey and the skills they needed to progress we created a very successful learning environment. We had cultivated a generation of new leaders in the Lifecare practices.