Promote joint health in travel PT

Many travel therapy jobs will require you to teach patients exercises that promote joint health. When individuals are left to create workout routines on their own, they risk the chance of causing unnecessary joint damage and pain. There are a few things you may want to consider when working with a patient who has weak joints. In addition to promoting a healthy lifestyle, keep up to date with any new information available regarding joint health. Here are some tips on how you can ensure your patients are taking it easy while still staying active:

What to focus on with exercises
When you first start working on a new travel PT position, start off slowly with your patient. If you increase weight, resistance or time too quickly it can put strain on their joints and cause more pain. It's best to have them slowly work toward a goal so that you can ensure their joints are strengthening in preparation for the added pressure. Along with that, the quality of a patient's routine is more important than how much he or she is actually completing.

Be sure to pay attention to your patients' form during each exercise. If he or she is doing a stretch or other task incorrectly, the joints may be in jeopardy. Make sure hips and feet are lined up, along with hands and shoulders, depending on the proper position and posture. As you work to increase your patient's exercise difficulty, you'll also want to give flexibility attention. When muscles are stretched they increase in length, which can help prevent joint damage by giving him or her a greater range of motion.

Other aspects of joint health
As a health care professional, you should be suited with the knowledge of how your patients can maintain joint health, not only with exercise, but in other ways as well. Encourage your patient to maintain a healthy weight through proper dieting. You will find that added weight can cause more strain to a patient's knees, hips or back. Not only can weight loss decrease joint pain, but it may also reduce your patient's risk for damaging the area permanently. Other daily steps toward improving joint health can be as simple as watching posture. Tell your patient that he or she needs to avoid slouching when both standing and sitting. Whenever pain makes it's way to a joint, feel free to have your patient ice the affected area – it's a simple way to reduce pain.