Recent Graduate Program
New Graduate Program
Our recent graduate program is designed to facilitate a smooth transition into private practice and then further develop and refine both practical and clinical reasoning skills.
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You can join our recent graduate program at any time.
Express your interest in joining the next intake of our New Graduate Program.
Healthia’s Recent Graduate Program (RGP) is a 10-month program designed to facilitate a smooth transition into a busy private practice environment by building on knowledge acquired from university and further developing and refining practical and clinical reasoning skills. In addition to new graduate clinicians, this program is appropriate for those who may have commenced work in a different sector (e.g., public hospital) but who now wish to work in private practice.​
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The Recent Graduate program aims to:
Encourage a holistic approach to care
Expand and add to existing knowledge base
Foster clinical competence and safety
Refine and expand on practical skills
Build confidence and resilience
Understand professional responsibilities in healthcare
Develop and refine communication skills
Encourage and develop lifelong learning skills
The content of the RGP reflects contemporary, evidence-based practice and includes specific information about working in private practice. The content is delivered by both Healthia staff and external presenters.
Workshops
Two 3-day, face-to-face, ‘intensives’/workshops held at the beginning of February and mid-July. The initial face-to-face workshop allows graduates to meet their cohort of professional peers and form the foundation of collaborative practice within a multidisciplinary team.
In Clinic Support
Each clinic will offer and have different methods of providing in-clinic professional development, mentoring and support. However, without sufficient high-quality, in-clinic support, graduates will not perform well, will not be engaged or happy in their role, and there is a much higher risk of early burnout (Chipchase et al 2022).
In addition to the structured RGP, each Healthia clinic provides both formal and informal support for clinicians. Each clinic offers different methods for providing this in-clinic professional development, mentoring and support.
Interactive Online Sessions
The interactive online sessions run over the 10-month period. These sessions use case-based learning and focus on application of knowledge.
Welcome Function
In addition to clinical content, we are passionate about welcoming our graduates into the Healthia family. The welcome function is attended by our clinic partners, regional partners and team members from our support office.
The night provides a great opportunity to meet your peers and colleagues in a social setting.
Feedback
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In collaboration with researchers from Flinders University, the Australian Catholic University and The University of Queensland, we evaluated our physiotherapy RGP via a one-year longitudinal, mixed methods study and published the findings in the journals Musculoskeletal Science and Practice and Physiotherapy Theory and Research in 2022. Findings demonstrated that our structured education program, together with in-clinic support, facilitated our recent graduates' learning, confidence, and self-efficacy (*Chipchase, et al. 2022, Evans et al 2022).
Our research has also been featured on podcasts by the American Academy of Orthopaedic and Manual Therapists and Physio Network. Listen here:
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All streams of the RGP program are also evaluated annually by Healthia and feedback from our graduates has been overwhelmingly positive. Qualitative feedback includes statements like:
References
*Chipchase, L., Papinniemi, A., Dafny, H., Levy, T., & Evans, K. (2022). Supporting new graduate physiotherapists in their first year of private practice with a structured professional development program; a qualitative study. Musculoskeletal Science & Practice, 57, 102498.
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*Evans, K., Papinniemi, A., Vuvan, V., Nicholson, V., Dafny, H., Levy, T., & Chipchase, L. (2022). The first year of private practice-new graduate physiotherapists are highly engaged and satisfied but edging toward burnout. Physiotherapy theory and practice, 1-14.
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