👉  Do you know the feeling of how wonderful it is to learn from a passionate colleague?

👉  Did you know that it is not obvious for primary care providers to get time and space for this?

👉 Do you think it adds value to patient outcomes when experienced healthcare providers share their knowledge often?

 

At Magnus, we believe that this professional passion is the basis for inspiring, improving, supporting and appreciating each other!

One of our projects to make that happen is the mentorship programme. Since the beginning of this year, Magnus has created extra time and budget to invest in the cross-fertilisation of passion, knowledge and skills... and how happy we are that we have been able to realise this! In this article, we briefly explain why we are doing this and what the initial results are for Magnus physiotherapists and patients.

We provide more detail in 3 parts:

  1. Why mentoring is important
  2. How Magnus integrates mentoring into day-to-day operations
  3. The first results of mentoring
Profiel Magnus Kinesist

1. Why healthcare mentorship
in important

A Magnus physiotherapist is characterised by a passion for helping patients, working intensively with colleagues, sharing competences and taking physiotherapy a higher level. At Magnus, we guarantee that physiotherapists communicate constructively with each other, bringing out the best in each other in favour of the patient. In addition, Magnus physiotherapists attend annual training courses and internal training is also provided between team members to achieve optimal cross-fertilisation of knowledge.

At Magnus, we recognise that there is a challenge to create time and budget in primary care so that colleagues can learn from, inspire and support each other. As a healthcare provider in Belgium, you are basically only reimbursed to treat patients. As a result, there is a risk of working in isolation, developing a tunnel vision and having little insight into your colleagues' approaches.

 

What if we turn this around? Working together, aligning, building bridges and inspiring support for each other. With this vision, we create a win-win-win situation. 

  1. More competent physiotherapists
  2. Better patient outcomes
  3. Strengthening of collegiality

Therefore, looking at the definition of mentoring, it is the method of choice to achieve these goals.

"Mentoring is about supporting and encouraging people to manage their own learning so they can maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be."

(Definition of mentorship according  https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_415574_smxx.pdf)


Moreover, we also know that learning from your loved ones is one of the most effective learning methods where the skills acquired stay with you longer than reading a book or following a presentation. This is also known as the zone of proximal development (Vygotski). Finally, you also create an interesting safe learning environment where self-development and engagement are central. And this results in the empowerment of the team and the organisation!

2. How Magnus mentorship
is integrated in daily practice

Although mentoring in healthcare often takes place informally (e.g. you just ask a colleague for an explanation), we felt it was important to explicitly allocate time, space and budget for this. Within our organization, we provide monthly consultation between mentors and mentees. To really learn from each other, you need time and space to engage in conversation, discuss literature, see, feel and perform clinical investigation and treatment techniques. In addition, a trainee or volunteer is present to test practical skills. During these consultations, cases, research and treatment techniques are discussed, tested, evaluated and adjusted. Mentoring is also demand-driven, meaning that the mentee (the person receiving the mentoring) sets his/her own learning goals. This stimulates self-development and curiosity to learn.

 Ingang Magnus Kinesisten Tunnelplaats Antwerpen
Mentorschap Magnus Kinesist

3. Results
of the mentorship programme

So what is the impact of our mentoring programme?

We asked our Magnus physiotherapists and received the following answers:

  • Because practice supports it and there is a clear framework for consultation, there is a greater learning effect
  • It improves the quality of interactions between colleagues
  • Mentoring allows me to better discover and appreciate the qualities of my colleagues!
  • My skills to help patients has broadened and deepened through mentoring
  • Techniques and skills I doubted I was able to fine-tune, allowing me to approach and help a patient with more confidence
  • Learning from a colleague integrates the day-to-day challenges of the field. It is often much more relevant than a theoretical academic presentation.
  • My techniques are more ergonomic and effective thanks to my colleague's input
  • I dare to express doubts better which makes it easier for me to learn than if this took place in a large group

We also discovered that our mentorship programme is quite unique in physiotherapy and we are obviously proud of that.

For Magnus, it's clear: once you start mentoring, you don't want to go back!