Good Patients

As we are all discussing different scenarios about patients we have encountered, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about patients who do everything of which they are told to do.

On my recent rural prac, patient X presented to the outpatient department with a Hx of consistently rolling his (R) ankle - the latest of which was 3 weeks beforehand. He described that his (R) ankle was now causing him problems at work with activities such as walking, climbing ladders etc. He had tried various home Rx's at home without success. He wanted me to write down a Rx map for him for our upcoming sessions so he could see what was going on.

I wrote down a Rx plan for him, making sure it was written down in terms he understood. I broke it down into 3 sections:

- Current symptoms (eg pain and swelling)
- Return to functional activites ( eg full ankle ROM, walking and squats)
- Preventitive management (ie no more further reoccurance)

The presentation of this simple plan to the patient got him very motivated to do his exercises and try and overcome this injury. After 3 treatment sessions, he was d/c from physio with nil pain or swelling swmptoms, had no problems with functional tasks ie walking and hadnt rolled his ankle in 6 weeks time.

It's an interesting case to bring up, I guess you learn throughout your pracs this year that every patient is different, therefore, will need a different approach to be taken with them in order to get positive results. It just so happens that the act of treatment planning for the patient made him very motivated to complete his physiotherapy. From this experience, I have learnt to take on board all of the different types of techniques other allied health professionals employ to get there patients motivated. I guess you never know when you will ever really need it but as the scouts say, always "Be Prepared". On this occasion it did for me.