Welcome to Provider Practice Essentials! By joining our community, you have joined the most comprehensive, focused, and resource-based medical education company for advanced practice providers. Your skills and training will be relied upon to educate the next generation of seasoned medical providers, and your impact on the young minds entering medical practice will never be forgotten. Please read through this orientation packet completely to understand how we work, and what we expect from you. Again – welcome on board!
Our Model
Provider Practice Essentials offers a live two-day lecture series and hands-on procedure course for anyone who works clinically as a provider and wants to enhance their training. A full description of our program can be found on our website. If you have not yet read through everything completely, please take some time to do so. As a member of our team, you will be representing everything we advertise, and everything we teach. You have a tremendous responsibility. One of the things that makes us unique compared to similar types of programs is that we teach each program with both a licensed physician and an APP as a minimum requirement. This allows us to deliver our message from both provider perspectives, and allows our audience to ask engaging questions that can be answered by both a physician and APP.
Our lecture series is second to none, and very focused, but contains a lot of material. For this reason, we try to limit our talking times to 1 hour and give frequent breaks. Lectures are given in the morning and procedures are taught the afternoons. Our procedures are designed to match the lectures each day. One of the popular parts of our program is the live suturing workshop, which takes place during the afternoon session of day 1. This part of the course requires 1 teacher for every 6 students, plus a dedicated teacher to demonstrate suturing. This allows us to provide individual attention to the students who need it the most. In general, at least three providers are needed for each afternoon session.
The courses begin at 8am every day and start with a short video clip or a raffle, and break at noon for lunch. Depending on questions and group involvement, lectures may run over time and into lunch. Lunch can be a 30 minute break, but students are given the option to learn through lunch to shorten the days. Lectures usually run until 1 or 2, and procedures last until 4-5pm. All of our procedures are simulator based and taught by providers who have mastered the procedure they are teaching. Our entire student process is automated through the website. Throughout the program, students are given a brief exposure to our website content, resources, and blog sections. They are shown where to find our lectures for later review, and how to complete their post-course surveys. Once complete with the program, students are expected to visit this portal to complete their post-course survey, and receive their CME certificate automatically. Another feature of our program is an optional certification exam that students can opt to take after the course. If they score 80% or higher, they will receive a signed letter of recommendation to present to any employer or credentialing board for privileges to practice their skills!
Basic Expectations
1) Communication
Poor communication is the cause of nearly all work-related frustrations. Every part of a company is effected when communication is not clear. We have provided you with the tools to effectively communicate as easily as possible. By using the Staff Resources section of our website, you will be able to order scrubs, complete employment paperwork, schedule yourself to work, and submit your expenses. It is designed to make your life easier, and also helps the leaders of our company to plan ahead. We can also be contacted at any time by telephone at (321) 506-9303. Email works very well too. Please keep the lines of communication open with us to help met your needs, and to help the company deliver its programs effectively.
2) Education
We are more than a two-day lecture series! In addition to our live course, we have a blog section, and a student resource section. We are expecting you to help us create and post original clinical content that can help us with our medical practice. Any content is good content! Editorials, evidence based clinical guidelines, healthcare articles – ANYTHING – can be used on our website in one place or another. Please provide us with one original content piece every 3 months on average. This can be as short as a one-page blog, or as in depth as you choose. Remember – you get paid to create these!
3) Live Orientation
You are expected to attend the entire two-day lecture series from start to finish before you will be qualified to lecture and receive reimbursement. Live teaching is not for everyone, and we want you to see and feel the course before you commit to signing up for programs in their entirety. Orientation will also allow you to consider which portions of the course you would like to participate in.
4) Teaching
We are an education company. Teaching expectations vary based on which portions of the program you choose to teach. At the minimum, you should be proficient with the procedure station you are teaching, and be open to questions, and showing different techniques. Much effort may be needed to reinforce key topics individually, which may mean repeating yourself numerous times throughout the session. Remember – students are expecting individual attention, and you are expected to provide it!
Lecturing can be a very daunting, but REWARDING task. If you plan to lecture, it is critical for you to review all of the live lectures on our website to get an idea for the content you must communicate. The slides have been prepared to be all-inclusive of our content and reviewed later for mastery. As a lecturer, these slides should serve as a template for you to adopt your own teaching style while covering the objectives. Being a strong lecturer means being energetic, engaging, projecting a loud voice that all can hear, and most importantly – mastery of the material you are teaching. You should be prepared to answer questions about the topic you are presenting, and do so confidently. As a team of a physician and an APP, you should be expected to back up your team members when difficult questions are answered. The lectures are designed to easily click through, have automated videos and graphics, and are very easy to teach. Don’t overthink the content – know the material and communicate it how you see fit. Each lecture should have a target goal of 1 hour to complete. It’s ok to remind students that the fine details seen on some slides are found on the website and can be reviewed at a later date. The best ratings we get are from smooth lectures that demonstrate the speaker knows the material!
5) Professionalism
We are all professionals, and expected to conduct ourselves to the highest standard. The students that take our course expect kind, open, polite, and friendly interactions. Most importantly, they expect your full attention. Please do not make phone calls, text, or be distracted while teaching students. There will be plenty of opportunities to take breaks with the group. You are expected to use the website to submit all travel-related expenses. This has been designed to be as easy as possible for you, and also provides a permanent record for storage and tax reporting if you need it. Please use our system for all reimbursements. You are expected to provide availability to teach, in advance, for as much time as you are able to give. Please use the scheduling system in the staff resources section to sign up for everything you are available to teach, in advance, to help us coordinate our planning.
6) Promotion of Product
Please share your pride in your clinical skills and our company by taking time to promote what we do to anyone that you think will benefit from our programs! Our success depends on your success, and strong word of mouth and reviews. We will provide a recruiting bonus to any new faculty that you send our way and teach. We value your opinion, and trust that you will know local people in your area to help us grow! As we grow, we will continue to add more content, learning modules, and credits to our website.
Scheduling
We have divided each program into four sessions (morning and afternoon, each day). annual schedules will be made seversl months prior to the start of the new year. This will allow you to confirm your availability (no major trips planned, etc) and also ample time for you to request time off from your other obligations. It is expected that, in the event you are unable to teach when you are scheduled, you make arrangements for someone else to “cover your shift.”
Hotel Booking
Again in an effort to make things as easy as possible, we have added a hotel booking feature to our site. After logging into the staff resources page, scroll to the “Book Hotel” link. Here you will see every date that we have available to book a room at the hotel where our program is held. Simply entire your name and contact information, click the dates you plan to need a night and this will be sent directly to the hotel for booking. Your fees will be added to our corporate account, and you will receive an email confirmation for the nights you have booked.
If you want to book a hotel – this is all you need to do. No credit cards, popups, or other hassles. You can visit this site (and the signup site) as often as you would like to add dates; and remember – the hotel is on us if you are traveling.
Travel Reimbursement
If you attended a course more than 50 miles from your home address, you qualify for travel reimbursement. Please review your contract for specific details. Getting reimbursement is very easy. Simply complete the “Submit Reimbursement” section and submit your receipts.
Blog Submission
A blog is a short (one to two page) article written about any topic you choose. Please review the blogs on our site for a brief review of what we expect. To submit a blog, visit the staff resource section.
You can submit a blog by uploading a proof-read document (word, pdf) into the reimbursement form. We will edit it for website content standards and linking. All active subscribed members will have the ability make comments on your blog and you may be notified that you have a comment to respond to. You can easily do this in the toolkit.
Member Content Submission
Use this icon to submit content that will serve as a clinical resource for our members. This material should be written for those who are practicing and need a resource to use. It will be sent to a section of the website that is not visible by the general public, and only visible by our members. Once you click the icon, you will be taken to a form for submission. You will be required to choose a category type. We again suggest uploading your content in the same way. Also, if you have graphics, it may be easier to save your content as a PDF and upload it as a file. Your choice.
Airline Booking Recommendations
We have selected Southwest Airlines as our airline of choice. Each of our locations is strategically chosen because they have a large Southwest presence, and offer nonstop flights from Orlando. Not to mention – they are very affordable, and refundable if you book the right type of flight. If you are planning to teach a program and travel, please book your flight with Southwest as soon as possible to secure the lowest fares. We recommend booking the “Gotta Get Away” fare, as they are the least expensive. The fare type is non-refundable, but you will get full credit for the tickets you booked that can be used for any future booking within 12 months.
You may choose any other airline you wish to travel with – just remember that our reimbursement limit for flights is $400.00. This is why we ask that you book as far in advanced as you can, while flights are less expensive. If you are unable to find an affordable flight, contact us.
Summary
There are many moving parts that make our company a success. Despite all of these items, our single biggest investment is you! Your ability to communicate and interact with our customers is the most important part of our program, and a big responsibility. With a little practice, review, and rehearsing, you will be amazing at what you do, and find that you will begin to end each program with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. We are here to help you be the best that you can be. Thank you again for joining our team!
