Who should pay for a practitioner’s mentoring?

In the specialised field of pelvic physiotherapy, access to mentoring is a critical aspect of a practitioners ongoing ability to practice within their scope and remain competent, safe and effective. Mentoring is a key stage of competence attainment, offering practitioners the guidance, support, and expertise needed to excel in their careers.

However, one common question arises from physios seeking our support as specialised mentors: who should bear the cost of this mentoring? Should it be the responsibility of the practitioner, the clinic, or perhaps a shared expense? Let's explore the various perspectives to help you make an informed decision.

The Practitioner’s Perspective

Investing in Your Future

For many practitioners, the cost of mentoring is seen as an investment in their professional development. Here’s why:

  1. Career Advancement: Mentoring can provide invaluable insights and knowledge that can accelerate your career progression, particularly when a practitioner has goals to specialise or start their own service.

  2. Skill Enhancement: Personalised guidance helps refine and expand your skill set, making you a more effective and confident practitioner and not to mention the requirements to remain safe and competent.

  3. Professional Network: A mentor can introduce you to an inspiring network of peers within the pelvic health area of practice as well as other key contacts, broadening your professional network.


While the benefits are clear, it's essential to weigh them against the financial implications:

  1. Cost Management: Determine if the cost of mentoring fits within your budget and consider how you can offset some of the costs, such as speaking to your accountant when it comes to tax time.

  2. Look into Grants and Scholarships

    Many practitioners may not be aware of the financial assistance available to support their professional development. Grants and scholarships, such as rural workforce scholarships, can significantly offset the cost of mentoring. These opportunities can provide crucial funding to those who may otherwise find it challenging to invest in their growth.

  3. Return on Investment: Consider the long-term benefits of mentoring, such as increased earning potential and job satisfaction.

The Clinic’s Perspective

Investing in Team Satisfaction and Excellence

From a clinic’s standpoint, supporting practitioner via providing access to mentoring can lead to significant benefits for the clinic owner:

  1. Enhanced Patient Care: Well-mentored practitioners are likely to provide higher quality care, improving patient outcomes and satisfaction and retention.

  2. Staff Retention: Offering mentoring as an employment benefit, particularly when this is in a specialised or niche area such as pelvic health, can undoubtably enhance job satisfaction and loyalty, reducing staff turnover. Many physios we have encountered in the past (us included) have left jobs and sought out new roles specifically for the offer of specialised mentoring.

  3. Opportunity cost of providing mentoring in-house: It’s not only clinics who don’t have a women’s health mentor available who utilise our services. We mentor staff at a number of large women’s health clinics. Clinic owners are often the ones providing mentoring to thier team, when there are a million other tasks they have piling up to complete. Outsourcing mentoring can be a really effective move from a cost and workflow perspecitve, freeing owners up to contribute to the business in other areas. Likewise, using other staff to mentor takes away form their clinical/revenue generating time and they may not be trained in coaching and mentoring in order to get the best out of their mentees.

    We also mentor staff from large public or community funded health networks, where it is much more cost effective for mentoring to be outsourced than for the organisation to hire a more senior staff member to provide internal mentoring.

  4. Reputation Boost: A clinic known for investing in its staff’s development can result in goodwill amongst staff and help to attract new physios through word of mouth and gain a competitive edge in the recruitment market.

The Shared Investment Model

Balanced Approach

A shared investment model (split the cost of mentoring!) can be a win-win, distributing the financial responsibility between the practitioner and the clinic:

  1. Mutual Commitment: Both parties show a commitment to professional development, fostering a supportive working relationship and encouraging greater buy-in and appreciation from the practitioner.

Implementation

  1. Clear Agreements: Outline the terms of the cost-sharing arrangement in a formal agreement to avoid misunderstandings. (E.g. Physio pays and will be reimbursed or otherwise)

  2. Periodic Reviews: Regularly review the benefits of mentoring and adjust the arrangement based on the practitioner’s progress and the clinic’s goals

Ultimately, the decision of who should pay for a practitioner’s mentoring depends on various factors and may change over time depending on goals and career stage. Whether the cost is borne by the practitioner, the clinic, or shared between both, the key is to recognise the immense value mentoring can bring to both the professional and the clinic and consider this as a key asset to both clinic growth and patient care.

Karina Coffey