First Job M&M: 48 hours to buy in or get out (with Dr. Karen Horton)

Joining a practice when things are very set up has pros and cons.

What I really liked about joining a well-oiled machine was I didn't have to hire anybody.

I didn't need to figure out like practice management software or how I was going to run things.

I had one day I was allowed to see patients in the office.

I was on Wednesdays.

My nurse who did the preoperative teaching didn't work that day.

So I did all my own pre-ops for the first several years of my practice.

Nice.

And I didn't really reap all the benefits of joining a big practice, but that's okay because I wasn't busy yet.

I scrubbed into my senior associate surgeries as often as I could just to, you know, be there.

If it was an insurance case, I could bill as an assistant.

But just kind of learning how they did things.

I sat in on some of their consoles, so I kind of learned their verbiage about how to describe a tummy tuck.

And it was a little different from what I would have said, but I did incorporate many of – their styles into how I practice.

And it takes a long time to ramp up.

I remember when I was a resident and at the university where I trained, some of the incoming plastic surgeons were figuring out it takes a while to get going.

And so I was taught.

I'm experiencing that now.

Can say it's

not, you don't just show up and it's like, it takes four years.

It really takes four years to

to become busy, to figure out what you're doing.

There's trial and error.

So I went into practice saying, okay, well, it's going to take me four years.

It takes a while.

Joining a practice when things are very set up has pros and cons.

What I really liked about joining a well-oiled machine was I didn't have to hire anybody.

I didn't need to figure out like practice management software or how I was going to run things.

I had one day I was allowed to see patients in the office.

I was on Wednesdays.

My nurse who did the preoperative teaching didn't work that day.

So I did all my own pre-ops for the first several years of my practice.

Nice.

And I didn't really reap all the benefits of joining a big practice, but that's okay because I wasn't busy yet.

I scrubbed into my senior associate surgeries as often as I could just to, you know, be there.

If it was an insurance case, I could bill as an assistant.

But just kind of learning how they did things.

I sat in on some of their consoles, so I kind of learned their verbiage about how to describe a tummy tuck.

And it was a little different from what I would have said, but I did incorporate many of – their styles into how I practice.

And it takes a long time to ramp up.

I remember when I was a resident and at the university where I trained, some of the incoming plastic surgeons were figuring out it takes a while to get going.

And so I was taught.

I'm experiencing that now.

Can say it's

not, you don't just show up and it's like, it takes four years.

It really takes four years to

to become busy, to figure out what you're doing.

There's trial and error.

So I went into practice saying, okay, well, it's going to take me four years.

It takes a while.