[Erik Lineberry]

Having patients reflect on their daily activities during initial evaluation instead of going straight into pain/symptom provocation questions (ex. NPRS, what hurts, etc.) has helped the patient and me start PT with a functional goal in mind instead of starting with a negative connotation to the patient’s condition. This makes PT more personal and positive for the patient and improves patient’s motivation. 50% or more of the patients I see list just the word “pain” as their goal for PT on their intake form and I think this is a bad place to start. I like to point this out to the patient and have them think about what activities their pain symptoms make more challenging than usual throughout the day. Usually the patient will come to the conclusion on their own that having a goal of “returning to running” is better than “no pain”. Not that we don’t want both, but the former is usually something that is more important to the patient and can be used as a motivator moving forward. I am still working on this, I still catch myself leading a patient into an answer and having them unintentionally focus on pain over function.

[Erik Lineberry]

I agree this is a great article to help educate patients that surgery may not be the best option in every case. I think the power of perception is huge, but I would have never thought it was this powerful. This study definitely hits home the importance of patient expectations and our role as healthcare providers to help change those expectations in a positive way. It will be interesting to see the response to this article from different fields of medicine.

[Author]

Posts