The Replacements
This past week I had the pleasure of spending the day lecturing for one of the FNP programs in town. The experience was not a new one for me, but it was different in that I was "it" for the whole class day. I enjoyed myself very much, and my feedback has been positive to date. As I prepared for this posting I thought about this experience and how it pertains to business ownership.
Our clinic has a three-pronged mission: providing high quality health care services, serving as a resource to our community and promoting our profession. As one of two NP clinics in the area, we feel it is our duty to provide learning opportunities for health care professionals of the future.
Many of my colleagues are feeling the strain of financial pressures in their various practice settings. Instead of receiving straight salaries for work product, the trend is to compensate based on performance, which usually translates to sheer number of patients per day. Given the intense pressure to care for increasing numbers of patients, clinics and other health care systems are reducing or eliminating student opportunities. The argument is that students "take time" that could otherwise be spent seeing patients. Consequently there are fewer clinical sites available and far fewer students completing their training, especially in primary care.
Having control of my schedule and the general clinic schedule allows me the freedom to work students into the day without compromising patient care. Communication with the support staff as well as providers is essential. When the appointment time is flexible for the patient, we try to schedule visits to coincide with specific student requirements. Our patients are well aware of our educational advocacy and often express their excitement in "helping out" a budding health care professional.
What's in it for you?
Students challenge your process. They ask questions and want sound explanations for everything you do. Students force you to stay current with the latest research, evidence-based guidelines, practice trends and all the other aspects of practice one never has time to pursue. In a small practice, students are very valuable for filling the gaps with answering telephones or returning patient calls as the need arises. Students can also become future employees.
In some areas, clinics who train students are eligible for stipends through health care education funding.
I want to encourage you to design your practice to foster NP growth. Include student placement in your business model. Remember that you were once a student, too. Every single day I have a student, I learn something new or appreciate something special about my practice, my patients or myself. Today was another of those days.
Today one of our PNP students was evaluating two brothers for strep throat. English is not the family's first language. The eldest is 5 "and a half" years old, and the younger one is 4 years old. When they arrived I asked them why they came to visit me and the older brother said, "I have something in my throat that hurts but it's not strep throat." Throughout the visit the older brother continued his chatter; he couldn't wait to be 6 (years old) because then he would be King; he'd been to the dentist recently and described his experience by saying he didn't like "adult" dentists because they were mean and that "next time" he was going to see a "kid" dentist; he loved his brother and his brother copied him all the time but that he didn't want to copy his brother all the time; and he ended with: "my brother....we are a lot alike and like the same things but he is different because he is two shades lighter than me." The student was trying hard to stay focused and concentrate on the task at hand but couldn't help but laugh at this child's soliloquy... In the end, both the boys had strep throat!
The entire visit took 20 minutes, tops, but the lessons learned will last a lifetime.