Physical Therapy Practice: Unpredictable Staff Changes
These days I don’t take anything for granted, and I certainly am not surprised anymore by my employees, or ex-employees for that matter. In the beginning I was more naive and thought that most professionals in our industry upheld the high standards and work ethic that I do. After years of being caught off guard and completely surprised (in a bad way) about people, my outlook started to change. I tried everything I could to prevent employees from negatively effecting our practice on their way out the door; I read books, I talked to peers, talked to mentors, changed our interview process over and over. I came to the conclusion that although certainly those factors help, it will not completely alleviate hiring some unfit people into our business.
How many of your employees have quit without giving notice? How many have stirred up drama in the workplace? How many turned out to be a “cancer” in the clinic? This and more has happened to me, and probably to most of you. Being able to bounce back after situations like these occur isn’t always easy, but I have realized that it’s ALWAYS been for the better. I am a strong believer that everything always happens for a reason. And even though certain situations can leave you in a panic and scrambling, it always works out. And it almost always works out better than before.
My current situation is no different. A month before I was preparing for one of my fabulous physical therapists to leave us on a maternity leave for a few months, my other physical therapist gave notice. She was fantastic with our patients and team, and even though she gave notice and was leaving on good terms, it was crappy timing. We replaced her and trained up a new “edgy” physical therapist with a more alternative approach to treatments (which I loved and is what drew me to her). After a week, my PT had her sweet baby boy and the new PT emailed that she wasn’t going to return; no notice. We instantly went from 2 full time therapists and me on standby, to just me. Now I’m working everyday from 7am-6pm and I am actually really enjoying being back in the middle of it all! I am able to get such a better grasp on how my clinical assistants perform and the outcomes we get from our patients. Although I desperately need another PT in here to help me, I am thankful that I am healthy and able to jump right in when the going gets tough. I’ve been able to see our team come together in a way that I may have never seen if this situation didn’t arise. They are happy, they are helpful, they take the initiative to assure our patients don’t suffer from being short-staffed. It’s not just me, the owner, we are in this together and my team is rising up to the occasion.
“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations”
