This has reinforced to me that the patient comes first, and a professional approach rather than following your own emotions is very important. It shows the patient that you are rationale and in control of the situation, but they are ultimately in control of their own outcome. Empowering them would be more motivating than enforcing something on them and making them feel inferior or bossed around.
Friday, June 13, 2008
It's for their benefit not ours
The sense of gratification that comes with helping people can be fairly addictive. Sometimes I forget that the patient can benefit even if I don't feel good by the end of the session. When taking a post-natal class recently, my fellow student reminded prior to starting that some of the women will be distracted by their babies and some babies will no doubt cry. This reminder helped me to continue with the session for those who were attentive at various times, and to continue talking when babies were crying. If I had become insecure or distracted when a participant stopped paying attention, the session would never have flowed or finished... then no one would have benefited. The achievement of keeping the class flowing despite so many distractions, in itself was satisfying.
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2 comments:
I agree that it your particular case, during post natal classes that bossing the patients around would not be a good idea. However sometimes in a hospital situation, when you have to see the patient walk before they can be discharged, being a little more 'pushy' may be indicated. As if you gave a unwell patient the option of staying in bed they would probably take it. I also agree with your comment about not just being driven by emotions, if the patient is not seen to be improving they may have still benefited from a PT session. However I guess that is why we have objective measures, so we can objectively see how well they are doing and not just rely on subjective assessments.
Well done. I think that we have to be adaptable to situations and the different sought of patients we see. Sometimes we have to be the one bossing them around so that we can achieve the goals we set out and sometimes we just have to let them be in order to achieve better patient compliance. We have to decide accordingly and act in the utmost professional manner either way.
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