STOP Overwhelm With Your Patient Assessments

Posted By: Andy Barker

‘I am a band 5 rotational physio and a couple months into my MSK rotation and just feel a bit overwhelmed with it all.’

This is part of an email I got from a New Grad Physio the other day…

She is having a problem that almost EVERY New Grad has.

But…

Unlike most, she is wanting to do something about it.

She was making contact to ask a few questions about my upcoming course;

New Grad Physio LIVE – Lower Limb Course

We bounced a few emails back and forth and she went on to say…

‘My main challenge is having the patient in front of me and working out what the problem is and what the best way to treat it. I feel that because I don’t feel confident in knowing what I’m doing, I am not giving the patients the best rehab and a good service.’

I hear problems like this all the time from New Grad Physio’s, Sports Therapists and Sports Rehabilators.

As therapists we ALL do the same 3 things…

We assess our patients…

We treat our patients…

And we prescribe rehab to our patients.

That’s it!

These are the 3 pillars of what we do as therapists to help patients out of pain and back to full health.

But why are some therapists able to make quick changes to patient symptoms and others become overwhelmed and are not able to give their patients the service they feel they deserve?

It’s easy to see how problems identifying the patient’s problems i.e. your patient assessment, is going to make your life very difficult as a therapist and the success of your interventions, your hands-on treatment techniques and rehab, even more difficult.

The assessment is the first thing you do with your patient and is made up of your subjective and objective assessment.

If you are unable to extract the right information from your patient’s assessment then there is a large chance you will treat and will you prescribe rehab for the WRONG problem.

That is why your patients don’t improve.

The assessment is where I see most New Grad’s get it wrong.

But if you have a clear assessment structure it is much easier to identify the patient’s actual problems and even better, it tells you EXACTLY what to do next…

It tells you which hands-on treatment techniques you should choose…

It tells you the correct rehab exercises to give your patient as part of their home exercise programme.

I spend almost the full morning of my 1 Day Lower Limb Course on the assessment, both the subjective and objective, because I know how important the patient assessment is.

It gives you the information you need, if you do it correctly, to know exactly what to do next.

Henry was a physio that attended my last lower limb course and here’s what he had to say;

‘I really enjoyed the course, I thought It was really informative and loved your assessment lay out. My big take home from the course was how you linked assessment findings and simplified the rehab programme to form a planner working on each rehab step from range of movement through to reintroduction to sport/activity.’

The key is being able to link the information from your patient assessments to your treatments and rehab.

This sounds easy and it can be much simpler than you think…

Join me in less than two weeks on my next event and you will learn how to nail your lower limb objective assessment, so you know exactly WHAT hands-on treatment techniques and rehab exercises to prescribe and get consistent, quick and successful outcomes with the patients you work with.

Using my 6 Step Rehab Planner you will learn how to take any lower limb injury through a full treatment plan, from start to finish, without fear of your patient breaking down.

We will cover the assessment, hands-on treatments and rehab programming for the ankle, knee, hip and the lumbar spine.

Secure your place here

The course is limited in numbers due to the high amount of practical content involved and currently only 7 tickets are left.

You can find out more information about the course content here

If you have any specific questions don’t hesitate to get in touch at andy@newgradphysio.com