It's Official!

After training and shadowing other assistants for the past three months, this week I received my own chair at the office! My name is on the schedule with my own column of patients. It's a light schedule compared to the other assistants, and I still need help from time to time, but nevertheless, I'm officially an assistant! This may not seem like a huge deal to you...but to me it is. I walked into this field of work with no background in it other than being a patient in an orthodontic office over 10 years ago. I was blessed to find a group of people who had faith in me that I could do this job. So much faith that they hired me before interviewing anyone else for the position, knowing that I would require more training than someone else with experience would. I was told by the doctors and assistants, that on average it takes about 3-6 months of training before you get your own chair and 6 months to a year before you are completely comfortable working on your own. Back in September I couldn't imagine working on my own...it was all so overwhelming and there seemed to be so much to learn. And here I am exactly three months later with my own chair! It has been a rocky road these past few months learning this trade (which I continue to learn each day I am there, I have only begun!) and I have had my share of difficult days. But, when I think about how much I have learned in this short amount of time...the vocabulary, procedures, how to use the tools, charting, coding, scheduling...I get excited thinking about all the things I will learn in the future and where I will be in the next three months :)