Hi guys, I hope your all doing well having survived week one of the new placement!
I have to say the first two days of this musculoskeletal outpatients made me feel completely useless! Previous supervisors have always commented that my communication with patients has been a strong point, and up until this week I always thought that it was too.
The first two days of this clinic saw me with 5 out of 6 patients with very limited English speaking abilities. Not only did this make it hard for me to try and get a thorough subjective and objective examination and get all the relevant information that I needed to treat these patients, they didn't appear to understand what I was trying to say! As a consequence, one of my treatment sessions lasted for a little over 2 hours!!!
Frustration at yourself (and with the patient) is a very hard feeling to try and conceal and I think maybe on one occasion the patient may have picked up on this. Aside from this being completely unprofessional, it really made my doubt my abilities as a physiotherapist - if i can't communicate with my patient how on earth am I going to succeed?
As the week progressed I learnt how to direct my questions to get an appropriate response, and the use of non-verbal communication is a fantastic thing that i really under-use! Treatment sessions have decreased in time (slightly) and that useless feeling disappears when you see that they are getting some relief from their pain/improvement in their condition.
I guess that what Physio is about - being able to communicate with everyone. We can't choose our patients and have to be able to adapt ourselves and the way we are around each patient so they understand and trust us. What a learning curve...
Fan
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I completely agree with you Fan. Non-verbal communication plays a huge role when working in physio. I find that I tend to express my feelings non-verbally too much at times as well. The other thing that I have to make sure to be aware of is not displaying my frustration towards other health workers on the ward. Setting up times to see a patient on the ward can be very interesting to say the least. The last thing I want to do is upset the other staff and create more issues for them and myself on a daily basis.
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