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Where do you want to live and practice?
One of the first decisions you will make
as you begin to think about going into practice is where you want
that practice to be located. Over the next few issues of [ITAL]Student
DC, [/ITAL]we will take you from a broad general view of location
(region, state, and province) down to the specific street address
where your practice will be located.
Along with personal goals for other areas
of your life (see the “Personal Goals” article), your
practice location decision begins with a personal decision. Where
do you want to live? It’s quite possible that where you start
out you will end up, so think about where you want to live until
you retire.
Although we are sure you’ve thought
about where you want to live, here are some considerations that
might help you organize those thoughts:
Many people go away to school and come
back to set up practice in their home town. There are, of course,
benefits and drawbacks to going where “everybody knows your
name.” The benefit is the built in base of potential patients
who already know you. The drawback is that everybody still remembers
you as you were in high school.
If you have a spouse or significant
other and children to help make the location decision, their wishes
must be taken into consideration.
When you’re collecting your thoughts
about location, here are some points to consider:
Would you rather live in a small town,
medium-sized town, or suburb of a big city?
How do you feel about heat, humidity,
snow, rain, cold? Do you need to live in an area where there are
four definite seasons?
Do you require an area where there are
museums? Theater? Ballet? Major zoo? Music and concerts? Family
cultural activities?
What spectator sports do you want to
be close to: Race tracks? Football stadiums? Baseball fields? What
kinds of sports do you enjoy participating in? What kind of activities
do you like? Where do you have to be in order to do these —
mountains, beaches, streams or rivers?
Is the quality of public-school education
important to you and your family? Do you like living in an area
with several good colleges and a major university?
Do you or a family member have specific
medical needs which require you to live near a major medical center
or a city with access to special medical facilities?
Do you need to live near an airport
with access to lots of other cities?
Is it important for you to live in an
area with very low crime?
Do you want to live in an area where
there is a large diversity of people?
Do you want to live in a certain region
(East, Mid-central, Midwest, etc.)?
Do you want to live in an area that
has certain types of churches or synagogues or other religious groups?
How much does cost of living in certain
areas matter to you?
You’ll notice that we haven’t
mentioned competition as a factor in where to live and set up practice.
We’ll be discussing competition in later issues, but it shouldn’t
be a top priority at this point.
One young DC, for example, spent a lot of
time analyzing locations and ended up making the decision in favor
of her personal preference, despite that area having a lot of competition.
She doesn’t regret the decision.
Another veteran chiropractor moved after
graduating to an area where he was told there was little competition,
but he and his wife weren’t happy there. He advises going
“where your heart is.”
HERE ARE A COUPLE OF SUGGESTIONS
TO HELP MAKE THE DECISION:
• Make a list of your top five
criteria for location and make up a comparative analysis of several
locations using those criteria.
• To break a mental dilemma
between two locations, use the “gut check” technique:
Label one location “heads” and the other “tails.”
Flip a coin and look at the result. Then ask yourself, “Is
this the outcome I wanted?”
You’ll be surprised how often your
subconscious will give you your answer.
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