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Return to Step
2: Determine where your advocacy
paycheck will come from. |
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Step
3:
For private, independent advocacy: Develop your
gap analysis.
If you've decided to
pursue, or at least to research further, the
idea of starting and growing your own advocacy
practice, as an independent, private advocate,
then your gap analysis will take a different
direction.
Independent, self-employed advocates need two
main skill sets: |
1. |
advocacy skills |
2. |
run-your-own business skills,
including bookkeeping, marketing and others
(more information below) |
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Advocacy Skills:
Whether or not you will need more education
depends on your background, experience and
training as they stand up against the services
you plan to offer to your clients. So, for
example, if you plan to sit by a patient's side
while he is hospitalized, you need to have
experience in hospitals - understanding who's
who, how they are run, the schedules they keep,
the expectations, and most certainly patient
safety.
A caveat: don't assume if you are a nurse or
other provider who has worked in a hospital that
you really understand hospitals! You need
to be intimately knowledgeable about the
hospital from the patient's point of view -
often directly opposing the way providers see
it. Clinical experience in a previous career is
no predictor of success as a private advocate.
Review the
master list of private services to see which
ones you hope to offer. Then check off, or
cross off, those you feel competent and
comfortable providing to others. The
remaining skills will be your gap - the gap you
need to fill with new courses or programs.
Business Skills:
The daydream of being in business for yourself -
and the reality - are two different things.
If you have never run your own business before,
you may be in for a real eye-opening, rude
awakening unless you prepare yourself ahead of
time.
Legal concepts, liability insurance (for your
business, not clients in this case), marketing,
customer service, financials such as cash flow
and budgeting, bookkeeping - these are all
skills you will either need to use yourself, or
for which you'll have to pay for services from
other professionals.
If running a business isn't yet your forte but
you're still determine to be an independent,
private advocate, then add those skills and
needs to your gap analysis. You'll need to
read, study, interview or take workshops to
learn how to run your business.
(Learn more:
The Health Advocate's Start and Grow Your Own
Practice Handbook ) |
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•
Step
4: Choose from
among the existing programs based on your gap
analysis. |
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