Starting your own private practice is a great goal to have in mind for your career as an osteopathic manual practitioner. It affords you the freedom to develop your own schedule, build a better rapport with patients, choose your coworkers, and make more decisions about how the workplace is run.
Many of our graduates at the Canadian Academy of Osteopathy go on to make that dream a reality. Along with extensive, principles-based osteopathy training, we encourage those students with lifelong career support after graduation. Students that choose CAO are driven to receive the highest standards of osteopathy education in Canada and, upon graduation, are confident and fully prepared to enter the field in their preferred osteopathic care environment.
If you’re committed to building your own private practice, it’s never too early to prepare. Here are some tips to get you started!
1. Get Inspiration From Others at Our Osteopathy School
CAO offers much more than osteopathic education. Our osteopathy school is an endless resource that can guide and support you throughout your training and well into your career. This starts in the classroom with our experienced instructors. Through small class sizes that allow for more personalized attention, you’ll learn from professionals who are actively working as osteopathic manual practitioners–many of whom have started and continue to run their own private practices. Those experts can serve as a great resource to inspire your own career path, offering tips and advice from their own experiences in the field.
Students also have access to shadowing opportunities, where you can see different graduates in private practices to get an idea of how you might like to set up your own after graduation. This is on top of the clinical training you’ll receive, where you’ll work under the guidance of upper-year students and develop the confidence necessary to be a professional in the clinical environment. Each of these experiences offers valuable, first-hand insights that you can translate to your own private practice.
2. Network With Professionals in Your Industry
Networking is a good practice for aspiring professionals in any industry. If you’re looking to become an osteopathic manual practitioner with your own private practice, take the time to connect with other professionals who have followed the same path. CAO has dedicated time and resources to creating and building connections with leaders of the highest standards in osteopathy to make our profession stronger, more respected, and increasingly effective.
CAO graduates are eligible to apply for entry into OSTCAN, which has provincial affiliates across Canada. This can be a great resource for connecting with professionals in the osteopathy industry across Canada.
Beyond this, take advantage of CAO’s close-knit campus community and make the effort to connect with your fellow students, alumni, and instructors. You never know what kind of advice or support they can offer down the line when it’s time to start your own private practice.
3. Build a Positive Rapport With New Patients
The success of any healthcare practice depends on the satisfaction and loyalty of its patients.
When starting your own private practice, you should focus on developing good working relationships with your patients so they are more likely to return for treatments and recommend your services to their friends. But you can begin implementing this practice from the very start of your osteopathy career–and even during your training at CAO.
During our clinical experience, you’ll get firsthand experience treating real-life patients in our free public clinic. Patients in the community come to the clinic for assessments or ongoing care, giving students the opportunity to develop clinical skills and client relationships in an environment that benefits all. Here you’ll take the lead on real osteopathy treatments, delivering real results to real patients and fostering relationships in the process. With extensive practice in building a positive rapport with patients, you’ll be ready to create a private practice that clients trust and value.
Are you interested in learning more about our osteopathy academy?
Contact the Canadian Academy of Osteopathy to start your career!