Changing scope means being prepared to learn again

There’s a particular kind of discomfort that comes with being experienced at what you do, then moving into a new workplace or area of practice and realising there are still things you need to learn.

I think sometimes it's assumed that once an OT reaches a certain level of experience, they should be able to walk into a new role and get on with it.

Well, that’s certainly not how I see it...

Experience absolutely matters. If you’ve been practising as an OT for ten years, those ten years matter. You’ve developed clinical reasoning, communication skills and an ability to work through complexity. You’ve made decisions, reflected on your practice and hopefully continued to develop along the way.

But... experience alone doesn’t tell me how someone practises, how they’ve been trained or whether their approach aligns with the standard of work we expect at Verve OT.

Experience doesn’t mean skipping the learning

There’s a difference between being an experienced OT and already knowing how to practise within a particular organisation or scope.

That’s why, at Verve OT, observation is a really important part of how we bring clinicians into the business. If you’re coming to work with us, there will be multiple appointments where you go out and observe members of our team before you head out independently.

And that applies even when you’re highly experienced.

We have an experienced OT starting with us later this month who has worked extensively within the NDIS. They’ve been completing functional assessments, SIL and SDA work. They’ve been involved in ART matters and Section 100 work within their current workplace. They’re coming to us with significant relevant experience.

They will still observe at least two assessments. Then either I or another experienced member of our team will go out with them for one or two assessments while they take the lead.

That isn’t because I assume they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s because they haven’t worked at Verve OT before.

They need an opportunity to see how we work and we need an opportunity to see how they work. It gives them exposure to our expectations, our processes and our clinical reasoning. It also gives us the opportunity to identify anything we might want to approach differently. A mutually beneficial approach, right?

Experience tells me what you’ve done, not necessarily how you do it

There’s another element of this that I think business owners sometimes feel uncomfortable saying out loud.

When someone comes into our business with significant experience, we still need to establish whether the way they’ve previously been trained to do the work aligns with how we believe the work needs to be done.

Because experience can mean many things.

Someone can tell me they’ve completed hundreds of functional assessments. That’s useful information, but it doesn’t automatically tell me about the quality of those assessments, their clinical reasoning or the standard of their reports.

We see this in recruitment. People can present incredibly well in an interview. They can have excellent experience on paper and give thoughtful answers to our questions. Then they start and we realise there are aspects of their practice that don’t align with what we expect.

Sometimes my response is essentially, “Nope. That’s not how we’re going to do that here.”

Not because what they’re doing is necessarily terribly wrong. Often it isn’t. But the way it’s being done can absolutely be improved.

There might be opportunities to gather information differently, strengthen the clinical reasoning, ask better questions or communicate recommendations more clearly.

That’s what I often refer to as the Verve way.

The Verve way isn’t about creating identical clinicians

When I talk about the Verve way, I don’t mean I want every OT to sound like me or approach an assessment in exactly the same way.

In fact, one of the reasons we ask new team members to observe different clinicians is because there is so much value in seeing different OTs work. One clinician might ask a question differently. Another might notice something in the environment that changes the direction of the assessment. Everyone brings their own personality, experience and strengths.

What should remain consistent is the standard underneath that individual practice.

I want our clinicians to understand why they’re asking particular questions. I want them to recognise when they need more information. I want strong clinical reasoning behind recommendations and reports that genuinely reflect the participant and the evidence gathered.

That consistency matters to me. It matters because our name is attached to the work and, much more importantly, because the people with disability we work with deserve high quality occupational therapy.

Observation works both ways

I think we need to stop seeing observation as something that only happens when someone is inexperienced.

Observation isn’t a punishment and it isn’t an indication that we don’t trust someone. It’s part of establishing that trust.

When you observe our clinicians, you learn something about us. When we observe you, we learn something about you. From there, we can have much more meaningful conversations about what you’re already doing exceptionally well and where we might want to adjust, strengthen or develop your approach.

I don’t expect experienced OTs joining Verve OT to arrive as blank slates. I want them to bring their experience, ideas and ways of thinking into our team.

But I also expect openness. Openness to watching someone else work, to being observed and to hearing, “We do this differently here.”

Because experience matters enormously, but experience should never be the point where learning stops.