by by Angela Davis-Sullivan
You’ve paid for the travel and hotel accommodations, the cost of the event, not to mention shutting down your revenue source by closing the office all to attend continuing education.
The truth is, you could be wasting your time & money.
From the time you graduate to the day you retire, continuing education will be a large part of being a dental provider. You have to have it for licensure requirements but the benefits of attending live seminars and workshops are the impact they can have on your practice growth and the type of dentistry you provide.
3 Ways to Get the Most out of Your CE
We’ve all attending live event, seminars, courses or workshops and got excited, motivated with new ideas, tips and resources but what happens to that excitement when we get back to the office?
It is easy to be excited about improving or adding something new to your practice while still at the course with all the energy of being surrounded by like-minded people. In a recent survey we found that less than 50% of attendees actually implemented what they learned at our live events with most not sure what to do with their new knowledge.
We get it, change is hard, and without implementation and a strategy to add the new things you’ve learned you will be wasting the time and the money you invested in your growth.
So, here are 3 musts to get the most out of your dental continuing education
- First, keep the excitement! Communication is key, keeping the team informed and reinforcing the benefits. Remember to share with everyone on your team what it is you want to implement and most importantly, why. Get everyone on the same page about the benefits of this “new” way or technology so they can understand the extra effort and be advocates for you.
Excitement keeps the energy high and the team moving forward on what needs to happen. Being surrounded with like-minded people all focused on moving in the same direction will transfer the excitement you felt during the seminar right into your office.
The best way to do this is to have time already set-aside right after returning from course, for a team meeting. Schedule the meeting team meeting on the next day back in the office. The longer we wait, the faster the excitement lowers. Share the benefits of the new system or technology, how this helps patients or helps the team and make that part of the why.
Change can be scary, and exciting so prepare the team for both!
- Secondly, get visual! Use project boards, poster boards, whatever you can to help motivate and keep everyone focused. Make it fun. Create this board with action items needed, who is doing it, and most importantly a date for completion or follow up.
Keep this board where everyone can see it, and use it. Having something right in front of you and the team every day will help keep everyone on track. Talk about accountability, create ownership of objectives by assigning individuals or pair up team members for a strategy that may need additional support!
- Lastly, make sure you and the team have time set aside to work on implementation. Time for discussion, planning, training, and follow up should be created with routine team meetings or added as part of the agenda to standing team meetings. If what you want to bring into the office is important, then make sure you have time allotted for it.
Anytime you return from an event or want to implement something new into the practice, you must have time to re evaluate the effectiveness. Your team meetings are a great time to look for feedback from the team. Feedback should be focused on; what’s working well and what’s not working well?
Dedicated meeting times are a must, so make it a priority in your practice.
The easy way to implement Dental CE
Getting your team on board or catching them up on what you learned away from them can be challenging while playing catch up after days away from patients.
After years of listening to our attendees and doctors we developed a hands-on 2 day team workshop to build the formula on how to implement something new into the practice, create systems for ongoing support and follow up while catching your team up on:
– what you learned during your Clinical Mastery courses for practice implementation – motivating your patients into accepting comprehensive treatment – attracting more of the specific services you want more of
If you start with the three steps above you will be well on your way to actually putting into action what you learned at any CE course you take. If you’d need help putting together a strategy that helps you and your team smoothly implement something new to the practice we’re here for you.
Sign up for a free coaching call through our online calendar today.
