The learning curve: Beginner’s guide to kickstart a Paediatric Practice

Hello dear readers! I am Dr. Rajisha Shah (PT). I graduated in 2015 from Mumbai (MUHS) and have a Paediatric practice of my own for 3 years now. I learnt a couple of things along the way and I’d like to share them via this platform. 

Dr. Tejashree has done an amazing job collating experiences and providing career guidance to aspirants. It’s also a great platform for experienced professionals to learn about others and potentially network. Kudos to the effort!

A little more about me. My niche is in Paediatric therapy, although I developed an interest-only after practicing in a Paediatric setup for good 2.5 years. It was challenging because not only was it a different approach from what I learnt at college in under-graduation but also brought in various management aspects I’d have to master, to build my own setup. 

While I believe there are some absolute takeaways in the article you’d like to concentrate on, it is still my personal opinion, and feel free to rationalize it as you’d like.

It is said, “The journey of a thousand mile begins with one single step”, I was lucky enough to take this step early on. I was interested in Neurology since my third year and I approached my college professors to ask what I should do to build on my knowledge even further. The most basic thing anybody could do is – “ASK!” and I did just that. One of the professors suggested an observership during my internship in a well-known Paediatric set up with a ‘holistic’ approach and from there began learning.

Physical Therapy perspective

Observership: 

One thing to remember in a Paediatric practice, that I learned in observership was – IT IS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM APPROACH! There are no ifs and buts to that and an observership is a great way to learn that.

In my observership, I was assigned, two mentors. One for Neuro-development Therapy and one for Sensory Integration Therapy. While SI was a new concept it took time to understand but I fell in love with it instantly.

Constant up-skilling yourself:

The world is advancing and so should you. Learning about Evidence-based therapy and practicing the same helped me.

Although while I was working, I did not do any extra courses and workshops, once I started my practice, I realized you have to take more workshops and do your certifications to keep adding to your accolades. This further helped me take mentorship programs myself for those interested in the field!

Equipment: 

Neuro Paediatric setup meant setting up a lot of play equipment. These include jungle gym, swing sets of various types, mats of various textures, all sorts of toys in the world and the list is never-ending. I even built kits- like a visual kit and an oro-motor kit! It takes up a lot of space but it is worth it.

I started small and kept growing to that list. You can even invest in them from the get-go and they’re going to be worth every penny.

Evaluations: 

These are a major part. Since in neuro paediatric cases, development is rather gradual, doing your evaluations gives you an objective inclination and even assures children’s parents that your efforts are genuine. Timely re-evaluations also are necessary. A printed report of those evaluations will even help the doctors and others specialists know you better.

Group therapy:

For cases with sensory conditions group therapy works wonders! You have to keep in mind the therapist: child ratio, but the results are outstanding.

Business perspective

Networking: 

I wish I knew this early on but I did realize that just skills won’t help. Word of mouth can take you from A-B but to go from A-Z you have to try to connect with as many professionals as possible.

In Paediatric physical therapy connecting with Paediatricians, Paeds Ortho, Paeds Neuro practitioners, Speech therapists, Child psychologists, remedial educators, nutritionists, prosthetics and orthotics specialists, etc. plays a big role. Internal referencing and having a team of your own always help.

Marketing: 

Social media is a great tool and updating yourself with current fads and trends will make you reach many. I started my Facebook and Insta pages but the key is to remain consistent which I think most of us ignore. If used correctly, I believe, it will help in expanding the setup even further.

I took short clips (not showing children’s faces) while they were performing an activity. Those included a gist of the activity and the purpose of the activity as captions. Nowadays, everybody knows about reels! I think they’re wonderful. Printing brochures and approaching doctors with the same also helped increased referrals. Having your websites may also work well.

Finance:

Major expenditure includes paying heavy rent (for a prime location) if it is not your own space. Although the returns will be worth it once you’ve picked up the pace. Other examples of expenditure can be your housekeeping charges, electricity bills, and staff salary. Maintaining a spreadsheet works wonders! Learning a little bit of excel is an added advantage.

Communication:

In every session you take, it’ll be great if you devote the last 5 minutes to talk to the parents/guardian of the child. It helps them trust in you better and when you talk about what you worked on, and how the child performed it builds a rapport that helps the child’s improvement! It is always teamwork, and the ‘teamwork always makes the dream work!’

Summary

I hope you enjoyed reading the article and found it to be informative and motivating! Wishing you all the very best in your journeys ahead to be world-class leaders !!

Adding a footnote on what courses I did and the links to my setup in the hope that you find it useful.

Workshops and Certifications that helped me build on my practice

• Basics of Neurodevelopmental Treatment 
• Basics of Sensory Integration 
• Visual Rehabilitation Workshop 
• Mat Pilates from APPI
• Kinesio-taping from HPE
• COMT from Capri Institute

Books that helped me tremendously

• Bundy’s for SI
• Marcia Stammers for NDT facilitations
• NDT approach by Janet Howle
• Kinesio-taping in Paediatrics
• Reading articles on topics like ADD/ADHD/ASD/CP/OBPP/Trisomy 21 (most commonly seen cases)

Find me on

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunphysiocare/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunphysiocare/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajishashah/

Author

Rajisha Shah

Rajisha has graduated from MUHS in 2015. She is the founder of Sun PhysioCare, a pediatric physiotherapy clinic in Mumbai, India. She has been successfully running her practice for more than 2.5 years.