Start & Run a Medical Practice. Michael Clifford Fabian
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Название: Start & Run a Medical Practice
Автор: Michael Clifford Fabian
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Экономика
Серия: Start & Run Business Series
isbn: 9781770408401
isbn:
Psychology is a field that people usually know something about, with little explanation needed. What is less well known is that there are many different types of psychologists, besides the clinical psychologist. Industrial, educational, developmental, sports, and forensic psychologists are a few examples of the different types of professionals in this field.
A psychologist’s office is certainly simpler to get set up as clinical procedures are not relevant here, but all the same basic principles for office set-up apply.
2.14 Respiratory therapy
Respiratory therapists are integral team members in many hospital settings, and they might also work in selected outpatient facilities independently. They can work on hospital wards, in emergency and operating rooms, or in intensive care units — or more commonly a combination of any of these. They can do specialized diagnostic procedures, administer oxygen, and intubate patients, to name a few of the responsibilities.
A respiratory therapist can certainly work exclusively in the outpatient setting, if this is the choice of the individual. Practice scope could include pulmonary function testing, sleep apnea management, and distribution of other respiratory assistance devices. I personally refer patients for some basic investigations to respiratory therapists.
2.15 Speech-language pathology
Speech-language pathologists are otherwise known as “speech therapists.” These health-care providers specialize in speech disorders, voice care, and even swallowing problems. The type of conditions and people they take care of include speech delay, stuttering, singers with poor voice technique, and stroke patients with speech and swallowing issues.
These professionals have a choice as to how they wish to practice. Similar to so many of the other health-care fields, they can work exclusively in the hospital environment, but many choose to have their own office and function independently in their clinical areas of choice, and based on their expertise. The office setup in these situations would be similar to that of other primary health-care providers.
A lot of the time, speech-language pathology is clumped together with audiology. This is a common association in many parts of the world, particularly when it comes to educational institutions and societies.
2.16 Veterinary medicine
For some reason, veterinarians get left out of the picture when the topic of health-care providers or allied health professionals comes up. In many ways, their practice is much more similar to medical and osteopathic doctors than some of the other health-care providers mentioned in the previous sections.
Veterinarians cover a full range of medical services to a variety of “patients,” prescribe medications, administer anesthetics, and perform complex surgery. Certainly the office setup can be very complex based on all the functions they perform, but there are many commonalities to the basic principles relating to office dynamics.
2
Is The Health-Care Field The Right Choice For You?
I can’t emphasize enough that whatever stage of the medical career path you are at, nobody will really be happy with what you are doing if you have not gone into a medical career for the right reasons.
While many readers of this book will already be done with medical school and residency, others might just be thinking of applying to medical school, or to one of the allied health profession schools. It is for this reason that I am including some basic concepts to follow. If you are already in the profession, it is not a bad idea to reflect on your own personal reasons for being in your position.
While there is no ideal or perfect personality match for a career in the medical field, being aware of some of the characteristics that are compatible with the profession is vital. People might try and impart their own views about what type of person makes a good doctor or health-care professional, or who should become a doctor — do not buy into this. There is so much diversity is this career and a “cookie-cutter” type personality being the best for the job is just not the case. Having said that, there are clearly characteristics outlined in this chapter that are key to making the right decision about a career in medicine; just keep them in mind. It is all about being appropriately informed and aware of the big picture, before you embark on a career in medicine or any of the other health-care fields.
1. Good Reasons for Choosing a Health-Related Profession
This section outlines some of the good reasons to choose to be in a health-related profession.
1.1 You are a caregiver
As a caregiver, you get to care for your fellow human beings. From the time a person first steps into your office, into the hospital, into the operating room, or a specimen arrives at the laboratory, you are on the road to helping someone. This help can make a big change in someone’s life, as well as the lives of those around the person.
For example, let’s say your first patient of the day walks into your office with a severe sore throat. This person has come to you for help because he or she is unwell and has tried all the measures he or she can to make the situation better. You take a throat swab that turns out to be positive for a bacterial infection of the throat (i.e., strep throat). You prescribe a course of antibiotics, and within 48 hours the patient is much better, back at school and on the football field. The patient phones your office two days later and thanks you, as he or she is feeling much better. How rewarding is that? This is just one example of how you can make a change in another person’s life.
Medicine is all about taking care of people. This can occur in a myriad of ways, both directly and indirectly. No matter what field you choose, it will ultimately be about taking care of a patient. On the one end of the spectrum you might have the clinician who cares for, and about, his or her patients on a daily basis. On the other end of the spectrum you can have the clinician scientist, or pathologist, who cares about patients in a very different manner. Neither of these disciplines cares any more, or any less, about their patients, but rather cares for them in different ways.
Some of my mentors and role models, whom I can think back on, imprinted very specific characteristics relating to how I practice today. The most outstanding common feature is the way they cared for their patients, as well as others around them. To give you one example, I remember one particular surgeon during my residency training days that made an extra effort to make sure parents felt comfortable with any, and all, aspects of their child’s care. He really listened and made the parents feel like their child’s treatment was the most important thing that was going on at that very moment in time. Spending just a few extra minutes to make sure the parents were more comfortable meant the world to them and it was clearly evident.
For those who might be less caring, situations can come up in which a feeling of discomfort and anxiety on the patient’s part can arise, maybe even some animosity. Not only can this have an impact on the patient, but also on the physicians and any of the other people involved in the care of this patient. Negative energy has a domino effect — a health professional’s emotions can have implications on those around him or her. If you look at all the different allied health care fields mentioned earlier in the book, this concept can be applied to all of them.
1.2 Exciting
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