Skills and conundrums in helping people with pain

Posted by Mint

Using the biopsychosocial understanding for diagnosis and treatment requires an expansion of manual therapy skills. We have already looked in-depth at the explanation of why biomedical reasoning alone is not justified in explaining pain and treatment methods. This post will consider some of the challenges involved in applying biopsychosocial reasoning in clinic. Osteopathic principles? The challenges and changes in clinical reasoning from our understanding of pain and the lack of correlation between tissue state and treatment is also a challenge to osteopathic principles. There has already been questions regarding Still’s Continue Reading »

Grappling with diagnostic reasoning and treatment

Posted by Mint

Research has established that health practitioners are unable to rely on tissue based diagnoses and justify the effects of manual therapy on mobility or tissue lengthening. There is a realisation that patients need a psychosocial approach alongside biomedical intervention. This has led to the development of several models for diagnostic reasoning and treatment by manual therapists. I’ll just discuss a few models here. It’s a challenge to osteopaths to really think about their diagnostic reasoning and treatment methods in light of current evidence. It’s something all the manual therapy professions Continue Reading »

Reconceptualising an osteopathic approach to pain, Part 1

Posted by Mint

Research evidence has eroded the foundations of much of osteopathic and manual therapy clinical reasoning: Inaccuracy of palpation Unreliability of postural, tissue-based diagnosis Ineffectiveness of manual therapy techniques to achieve significant changes in posture, tension and mobility. Many postural and structural diagnostic explanations have been found to be invalid, Biopsychosocial? There is an increasing evidence of the importance of the biopsychosocial model. You may consider this to be nothing new. Osteopathic has always emphasised a holistic approach. However, if you were to consider the diagnostic reasoning, treatment methods and treatment Continue Reading »

Patient records – what should they include?

Posted by Mint

The Osteopathic Practice Standard C2 has a list of what must be included in patient records there are 15 items. I recommend you look through and see if there is anything that you are not routinely including in your notes. This is a list you should return to periodically because it is a prompt for you to maintain the standard of your notes, over time it is easy for things to slip and to get out of routine of including one element. As an example I’ll just highlight a few Continue Reading »

Patient Records: mind your language.

Posted by Mint

Closely following the requirement for your records to be legible is that the language is understandable. You may find it challenging to consider the abbreviations you use and how well they are understood. You must always be careful what you write in your patient records – I’d like to think that goes without saying. Personal comments about patients, even abbreviated, must be written in a manner that would not cause offence. What abbreviations are you using? Can they be understood? Is your language consistent within your notes? Your notes may Continue Reading »

Why patient records matter.

Posted by Mint

Clinical record keeping is evidence of good professional practice and the delivery of quality healthcare. Every patient that visits your clinic will have a patient record. Have you ever thought about the importance of your patient records? You might just answer – because we have to keep records as one of the standards of being called an osteopath. For all registered health professionals there is a legal requirement to keep patient records but beyond this, what is the reason for making sure your patient records are high quality:  There are Continue Reading »

What’s so important about your communication skills?

Posted by Mint

Over the last 3 months I have considered in-depth consent, handling complaints and communication on the blog, lives and webinars. Repeatedly as I have looked at these subjects it has been re-emphasised to me that communication is a key to success in practice. In fact, this thought was being echoed in a live this week by Greg Todd a coach for Physical Therapists. The best osteopaths are going to be the ones who are the best communicators. What do I mean by best? Those whose patients are most satisfied with Continue Reading »

Listen

Posted by Mint

The previous blog in this series on communication considered non-verbal communication – the message that your practice conveys through it’s leaflets, website and practice environment. Today we are going to think about listening. Last week I pointed out that the first sentence in the Osteopathic Practice Standards guidance is ‘Poor communication is at the root of most patient complaints’. The first sentence of the standards is ‘You must listen to your patients and respect their, individuality, concerns and preferences.’ Listening is fundamental to good communication and good patient care. The Continue Reading »

Communication – everything but words

Posted by Mint

Communication is not just about the words that come out of your mouth it’s about the whole patient journey from their first contact with your patient to your last. We have previously considered consent and complaints and I have stated several times how communication is key to good consent and complaints processes. The OPS begins with communication as this forms the basis for demonstrating good practice standards. You communicate your standards through every aspect of your practice – the information on your website, your branding, your advertisements, social media, your Continue Reading »

Shaping your future – learning from feedback

Posted by Mint

Last week we looked at lessons you can learn from fitness to practice proceedings. This week we are going to think about learning from feedback received in clinic.  It’s really important to use positive and negative feedback for your personal development. If you simply ignore feedback and try to hide away from it you will find that it can have a negative impact on your professional development. Duty of Candour In this series on complaints it is appropriate to just remind you of the Duty of Candour – D3 of Continue Reading »