How do you know?
05 Aug 2018
You’ve taken the courses, you’ve completed the exams, you’ve spent some time shadowing / interning. So, are you ready to get started?
Here are some things you need to ask yourself:
1. Do you feel confident in your rehab skills & knowledge? Okay, honestly, the answer is likely ‘no’. If you’re not feeling confident in your skills and knowledge, perhaps ask your friends and family to provide some dogs for you to practice a full assessment on and some treatment planning. You may need some real-life hands on practice, without the safety net of a mentor. However, choosing first patients where your fails or stumbles are forgiven is a good start. Vets and Techs also have the advantage of choosing to ‘deep dive’ on one particular joint per week for example, or do a limb assessment or practice palpation on anaesthetized dogs. This is a good way to practice your assessment routine and solidify the pieces you want to always include.
2.How are your handling skills? Are you new to handling canine patients? Okay, this pertains to PTs / physios and other practitioners coming in from the human healthcare arena primarily. You need to feel comfortable using your knowledge and skills on a wiggly, licking, bitey, fearful, unruly, stoic, or overly dramatic patient. You need to understand the behaviour and ‘language’ of your patient. If you are not comfortable with this, then find resources to help you to gain confidence in this area. Perhaps you take a handling course… Read some training books… Take an online behavioural course… or sign up for a dog training course… (live and online). Get the handling skills you need, or all the assessment & treatment knowledge in the world won’t be of any use.
3.Will you be starting a practice or jumping into a new practice? Do you have business and marketing skills? “If you build it, they will come” only happens in the movies. So, learn business. Take the time to get set up properly. Figure out your multi-step marketing plan and make a blueprint. In fact, come up with a year of marketing strategies. WRITE THIS STUFF DOWN as you plan it! Check out No B.S. / GKIC Marketing (google it). It was a real game-changer for my business! (And for members, check out all of the Business & Marketing audios, the marketing videos, and the check lists for business & practice of canine rehab. (Login, click articles, scroll down to Video Training, and find the two documents that go with Training Videos 1 & 2.)
4.Eventually, you’re going to have to jump in with both feet. We can all likely remember what it was like to be a new grad. You jumped in – because you had to! Those of you who are parents might remember the day you brought your child home for the first time. I for one, couldn’t believe that they just let me walk out of the hospital with my baby. Where was the person who was checking for our ‘parenting certificates’? Nowhere! We had to jump in! So, that’s the final stage! Take a leap of faith!
Now, I’d like to open the floor to the rest of you! What did you do to help improve your comfort and confidence levels before jumping in to do rehab on dogs? Any tips you’d like to share? Advice you can offer? Please help others by answering this open-ended survey… (i.e. just type in all of your thoughts and ramblings!)
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/T9PSM39
Cheers!
Laurie
