Thriving During Peak Season with Dr. Torrey Carlson and Dr. Michael Morgan

Join?Vicki Dzurinko, OD, MBA, FAAO,?Dipl ABO, host of?Your Vision in Focus , as she explores what practicing looks like during peak times with Torrey Carlson, OD and Michael Morgan, OD. If you’re an optometry student, recent graduate, or just curious, read on for honest perspectives and invaluable guidance from doctors who have experienced it firsthand.

Dr. Vicki Dzurinko: You know, students are coming out now, they're graduating, they're going to start in their first job.

Help us understand how you help your doctors who are newer to the profession really get used to seeing patients and feel comfortable as they start on their career.

Dr. Torrey Carlson: I mean, that is always the challenge.

I have a new doctor who just graduated from the Kentucky school (KYCO), and she started last week, and we have an onboarding process that hopefully makes things easier for her.

I mean, the first day, it's the HIPAA Privacy Act and going through some protocols, reviewing our EHR we use, and making sure they know the shortcuts to speed things up a little bit.

And it's shadowing for a few days; shadowing me or one of my other associate doctors and looking at flow and you know, how things work, the process and the exam experience that we want to give.

And then you start having them with a tapered schedule, you build it up and until they really get a full schedule … there's not an internal clock going ... they're at their speed or at their pace that they need.

So really, after they feel comfortable and they get some confidence, it's throwing them into the fire.

Dr. Vicki Dzurinko: That's really great. It sounds like a really thoughtful onboarding process to ease them into it. And I think that practices that do that end up keeping doctors longer and then also attracting newer doctors as well. Do you find that's the case?

Dr. Torrey Carlson: Oh, absolutely.

I mean, they're not stressed out. It’s so different from the school and the two-hour exams they get even during some of their rotations. They're doing so many tests that one of my associate doctors told my new doctor, they said it's real world optometry now. It's not a classroom optometry.

So, we're taking care of their patients and their problems and their needs and it's very problem-oriented.

Dr. Vicki Dzurinko: Think about, you know, from everything you've learned, somebody who just graduated, just got their license and is ready to, you know, take off and they're getting into practice for the first time.

What's maybe one piece of advice you'd give them knowing what you know now?

Dr. Michael Morgan: Yeah, so confidence.

Like I said, I've been here three years with (Dr.) Carlson, and so I've worked with a lot of new doctors. I think it's kind of become like my indirect role to kind of help … transition these new doctors into normal practice now.

And I tell them all the time that it's really about your confidence there. The schools are preparing you properly; you know the information.

Don't doubt yourself. Don't second guess yourself.

You know, sometimes new doctors, they spend a little extra time in there, and it's because they're really trying to prove things to themself, not to the patient.

They're proving themself. Yes, I am, right. Yes, this is what it is. When I did this and I ruled this out?just be confident in what you think it is.

You know what you're doing there.

So, confidence I think goes a long way with everything there.

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