Pearls of the Month: Assess – Treat - Reassess
Welcome to ISW!
This is the first of many clinical “Pearls of the Month”. As this is the inaugural post I wanted to start by going back to the very basics, which are sometimes forgotten. When starting to build your knowledge base the key is to have a solid foundation.
Assess – Treat - Reassess
I know it’s simple, but this is one thing I see forgotten time and time again in the clinic! Do not just dive right into treatment without having a starting point. Find out what is important to your specific patient. Why did your patient come to PT in the first place?
Use objective testing to find at least one, if not several, comparable signs so that you can then later go back and re-assess after your specific intervention, whether it be a manual treatment, movement, etc. The comparable signs and patient’s stated goals should guide your treatment to make sure your patient is continuing to make progress. Also, if the patient is not progressing with a specific treatment/technique or has plateaued, it will give you a starting point for your new treatment/technique.
It is imperative to get the patient to “buy in” to your physical therapy treatment. You need to find out what motion, activity, or position causes pain/discomfort/irritation, and perhaps more important, which of those helps improve symptoms and function! Show the patient that you can make a positive impact right away with an immediate change with their comparable sign, and help set the patient up for future success.
If you want to build your clinical reasoning skills start with a solid foundation. It will not only help with patient buy in, but will improve home exercise compliance, decrease no shows/cancellations, and lead to better outcomes.