Public relations winner

I was pondering recently about the challenges of getting physiotherapy staff (as many of you probably have). This led me to think about students which guided me to the memories of our greatest public relations exercise of all time.

Many years ago when Beleura Health Solutions was in its infancy, we decided to hold a student information evening for all of the local high school students who had an interest in potentially pursuing a career in physiotherapy, podiatry, or exercise physiology.

We contacted all the careers teachers at the local high schools and let them know of our time and date.

We let all of our current patients know about the evening who then passed on the details to their close contacts, which in turn helped to promote the event.

We had all of our practitioners available on the evening and generally tried to have our more recently graduated practitioners present to the group. It was an open forum type arrangement and in each of the consulting rooms, we had demonstrations going on about what physiotherapists and allied health practitioners actually do.

The first year we had a reasonably good turnout, the second year it boomed.

The greatest problem was car parking.

It was an extremely successful venture that we ran for many years. I’m not sure why we stopped it, we shouldn’t have but I think we had complaints from local residents regarding the car parking!

Ironically, many years later we had a 4th year physiotherapy student come to our practice who eventually became an employee who had attended one of our student information evenings some years previously.

The public relations generated from those evenings amongst the local school and the broader community were outstanding. Even the local newspaper covered the event!

Something for you to think about, it was highly effective, inexpensive, and most importantly rewarding (it helped to secure a staff member). 

Attracting practitioners and students does not happen overnight. It takes time to develop relationships, a strong commitment from your team, and a proven track record. It’s competitive out there. 

What’s stopping you from organising a similar event? What’s the worst that could happen?

As always I hope this has been enlightening and if I can share any more memories of those nights with you don’t hesitate to contact me either via my mobile (0439347339) or email (antony@antonyhirstconsulting.com.au). 

Kind Regards,
Antony Hirst