While on my paeds placement I have treated a large variety of different conditions in children of various ages. As you know with paeds doing a session is pretty full on as we have to take into consideration where the child is in regards to their development. So no matter what condition we are assessing we are also focusing on what the child can functionally do and then trying to picture in our heads if this is normal for his age along with the task of trying to analyse what we have found subjectively and objectively in our assessment so we can plan our treatment.
Now in my time so far I have found to incorporate doing the assessment, analysing the assessment along with assessing the childs development to be pretty full on and have found myself constantly needing pauses so i can have a chance to stop and organise my thoughts in my head and plan where to go from there. I told this to my supervisor and she suggested that I really concentrate on talking allowed my assessment to the parent of the child. So i did and for example when i was assessing a toe walker i did exactly that.
During the subjective as the mother reported things I would say ok this is normal while this is isnt etc etc.. and by saying this aloud it made the whole analysis of the childs development so much easier as I was analysing it as I went instead of having everything the mother had said in my head at once trying to organise my thoughts while she continued to tell me new things.
During the objective as I analysed tone. mm length, strength, posture, alignment etc I would explain to the mother each of my findings as I went so I would say "this ROM is normal while this is a bit lower than we expect, can you see how is knee has this sort of angle and this causes this foot position which causes this and this etc etc". Again doing this made evertyhing so much more clear in my head as I was figuring it out as I explained it to the mother.
So not only does it help me with my assessment and treatment it also helps to improve the relationship we have with the mother as according to my supervisor apparently a lot of students tend to find it a bit difficult to work with the child along with the mother and instead tend to deal entirely with the child first and then at the end of the session simply just overload the parent with everything you have found today and everything you did with the child and this leads to a reduced knowledge of the session on the mothers behalf!!!
So in conclusion talking and explainingthe assessment and treatment aloud to the parents or 3rd party while doing it works absolute wonders for the relationship you have with the parents and also to improve the flow of the session and reduce the number and length of the dreaded silent moments which we use to gather and organise our thoughts.
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2 comments:
That is such a good idea. I do find that sometimes my thoughts get all jumble and I just need a moment to sort things out. I wonder if this would work when treating adult patients. I'm definatley going to give it a go! Thanks Leigh
Yes it as useful with adult patients as well. During my current placement i found like you that i was pausing been my assessment to collect my thoughts and remember what i have and havent done etc. Talking out aloud is beneficial as it helps you to reinforce your understanding and specifically comprehend the objective assessment i.e. figure out exactly what your test is assessing and determining where your patient is in comparison to norm and thus whether this finding is important and needs to be addressed in your treatment.
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