Should i take up the bond with Core Concept?

Today, i had an interesting question from a few students whether should they take up the bond offered by Core concepts? Is is good for fresh graduate to do private practice?

My personal reply will be as follow:
1. Firstly, times have changed. The graduate physiotherapists of the present have different expectations from the graduates of the past.
2. The graduates of the past will provide the advice that it would be good for graduates to be exposed to different areas of physiotherapy, be it inpatients, outpatients, cardiopulmonary, musculoskeletal, neurology, paediatrics, geriatrics, etc. The only best place to offer this exposure will be in the hospital.
3. These days, graduates are more adventurous, and more entrepreneurial. They like to try private first and see whether it works out for them. They don't want to take up the conventional route of working in the hospital first.

Therefore, based on this observation, it would be wise to consider the following issues

1. The company that is offering the bond, what kind of culture does the company have? Generally, all privates are profit driven, but do they support training and mentor ship for the newbies? What big is the company? Who are mentors? What history does the company have? Check with current and past physios. Are they enjoying their work there? For those who have left, why did they leave?

2. What are the conditions stipulated with the bond? Are you comfortable with it? Check whether are there any hidden clause? I doubt there will be any "too unfair" clause as the company has to maintain their branding and image. The fraternity is small, any bad reputation will spread like wildfire. It will harm the company business if there are very unfair clause. Generally, it should quite transparent.

3. Do a thorough personal reflection and see whether is it something that you want to do. Not everyone is suitable to do private practice. If you feel that you want to give it a shot, it always okay to try it out.

4. Is NOW the time? Well, the bond is being offered now, and you have to work somewhere after your graduation. It's always nice to have some cash in the pocket while you're studying. So see if you're comfortable with the terms (eg. how long is the bond). If you're not happy, stick it out and you can still apply for the hospital later. Alternatively, just pay back the bond. It's after all their money. =)

5. Lastly, to make an informed decision, go and volunteer your time to help out in the practice. Get a feel on the people, the patient, the work nature. It is good for a few reasons
a. It helps you beef up your resume
b. You get a first hand feel of the company
c. You get practice and consolidate your academic knowledge
d. Helps you to build network (helpful for your future career planning)
e. it also helps to impress your future bosses of your initiative and enthusiasm.


Hope this helps!!

I disagree with a fresh graduate to work in private practice bcos w/o a good exposure in acute set up especially like hospital environment, the fresh grad might need to struggle more when treating a more complicated cases!

To a patient perspective, it is very unfair to treat by a very junior physio unless the junior physio is only assisting their senior in their daily routine work!

For my own experience, if you never see an acute case like ACL recon or PCL/PLC recon case, you might dunno what is the acute management for it and how to continue managing a pt who is just discharge from an acute hospital? Another eg is like post by-pass case, if you never see an acute case, how could you manage a sub-acute case and some sub-acute case might resemble an acute case symptom!

So, it is not wise to encourage a fresh grad to join private practice unless no choice like in Malaysia, all the government hospitals are freezing their recruitment of fresh grad due to financial constraint! Lots of fresh grad are unemployed/starving!!

core concepts physiotherapy practice is expanding rapidly, i must say..