As a clinician who became a manager when I expanded my private clinical psychology practice to include associates and various products, I started to learn about the unique finance, personnel issues, marketing strategies, and customer relations challenges that a successful business requires. [...]
It all leads me back to the one complaint that I had with the otherwise superb graduate education that I had, which is that business management, leadership development, organizational change – any and possibly all of these areas should be included in all clinical training programs. While all clinicians may believe that all they ever want to do is see clients, the truth is that even in “just” seeing clients, they are small business owners and should understand what types of business practices are necessary for doing so competently and successfully.
Further, considering the types of Continuing Ed courses that are offered, I cannot recall one that ever focused on the business and management skills necessary to move clinicians into different roles and responsibilities.[...] To me, the problem rests with the clinician community as a whole for not valuing the importance of gaining training in management/business, and clinicians individually who do not acknowledge that to be in private practice is to be a small business entrepreneur, and to work in a clinic or social services agency or hospital, is to be a middle or executive manager of an organization – either for-profit or non-profit.
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