When working travel physical therapy jobs, it's likely that you will spend your first sessions with patients going over their histories. It's important that you know what questions to ask and how to use that information in your treatments to help ensure that your patients improve. From start to end, make sure that you get all the necessary questions into the conversation.
Taking patient history
During the first session with a patient in travel PT you may want to meet with him or her in a consultation room. It could be awkward or uncomfortable for the patient if you are asking about his or her history within earshot of others. Talking in a comforting tone will ease your patient into discussing what could be sensitive subjects. However, before you ask anything, let the patients do the talking.
Once you've heard the story of what brings them to you on this travel therapy assignment, you can start asking any prepared or provoked questions. Try to keep this open to start, not leading or limiting them to answers. You may need to ask specific yes or no questions in order to better understand some of their statements, and that's OK too. You will want to avoid pointing patients in certain directions for the responses of your questions, as this may not properly reflect what they mean.
Before you wrap up the informational session, be sure that you summarize what the patients have told you. This will prevent you from making an error due to any misunderstandings. You'll also want to allow your patients to ask questions before ending the conversation. If you are able to ensure their comfort, they will be more likely to be able to open up to you.
Why it's important
You may be wondering why it's so important to collect physical therapy patient histories. There are a number of ways in which the information you gather can help you provide the best possible treatment. Specifically, if you know more you'll be able to:
- Create comfortable relationships between you and your patients, which will allow them to share insight as to what is working and what's not throughout their sessions.
- Have full insight as to any past injuries or surgeries they have undergone, which may determine your method of treatment or limit the exercises you have them complete.
- Find out if there are any warning signs that indicate something has gone undiagnosed. For instance, an unexplained pain in the shoulder could indicate an infection in the abdomen.