Newly qualified physios have it so easy, don't they? The digital revolution has made learning easier and more immersive than ever, with hi-def anatomy models, research in your pocket instead of buried in a library, group chats connecting clinicians instantly and treatment trends exposed globally in real time. Young physios now have access to better educational tools than any generation before them.
Lucky them.
Except there's a flip side to all this and it's massive, because new grads are also comparing their reality against mates living very different working lives. Friends in corporate, tech or management-track jobs are often earning substantially more, working hybrid and easing into Monday mornings with a coffee at home and a laptop open on the kitchen table.
Meanwhile the newly qualified physio is on a packed train by 7am, already £20 down on the day. And once that clinic door opens there's nowhere to hide. You have to be emotionally switched on and physically present from the first patient until the last. Every sodding day. Five days a week and often after a long, smelly commute.
Patients are different now too. They arrive informed, opinionated and carrying internet-fuelled expectations that constantly challenge your clinical reasoning, and the diplomacy and mental agility required now is probably greater than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Sometimes it feels like they almost want to catch you out.
So I'm not convinced the young physios are less resilient argument holds much weight. The reality is thousands of younger clinicians are turning up daily and performing brilliantly under pressures many older clinicians never had to measure themselves against.
Clinic owners, this bit is for you. Stay visible. Stay clinical. Work the shop floor. Because a clinic without senior clinicians still doing the hard clinical yards is a bit like a restaurant run entirely by people who no longer cook. Lovely branding, plenty of strategy, and eventually someone notices the food's average.