A patient came in the other day and sapped all the strength out of me by the time she left. It was an outpatient musculoskeletal placement. She had a seven year history of lower back and bilateral hip pain and was on a disability pension. She also reported of a right-sided intermittent sciatica. Her attitude was not necessarily poor or negative. Rather, it was a nonchalant ‘been there, done that’ kind of attitude. She reports that she has tried physio in the past, but with limited or no success. She was quite frank in stating that she presented to our clinic because her GP had referred her. Going through the subjective with her was like pulling teeth. She was vague and inconsistent. For example, she had great difficulty with determining pain intensity levels. At times, her resting pain levels went higher than her aggravated pain levels. When directed to the inconsistency, she simply shrugged.
Hell, I simply wanted to shrug her off too. Of course, I did not… because we are professionals and our game face always needs to be turned on. As any good physio would, I wanted to help, but felt rather helpless. The patient was a chronic pain sufferer, so I thought about going through educating her on hurt versus harm, mechanisms of pain sensitization and what needs to be done to break the pain cycle. Towards, the end of the treatment session with her, I tried to encourage her to increase physical activity and how it was important to not let pain prevent her from doing the things she loved. I am not convinced at all that I got through to her. She politely agreed with all that I had to say,
By the end of it all, I felt utterly drained. Worse of all, I felt that this patient’s blasé attitude affected me to the point where it spilled over to the next patient. It would be great if all the patients that walked through the door were motivated individuals striving to take good care of themselves. Nonetheless, this is far from reality. I have heard of physios being burnt out from the accumulation of negative karma. My question and comment is how do you shield yourself from this? To be a good physio who demonstrates genuine concern for his or patients, putting up a false front would throw good rapport out the window. Do you simply put on a fake optimistic happy face? How do prevent patients from draining your vitality?
2 comments:
Hi Minh, I thing its will be impossible not to get drained throughout your career as physio. You know that patient’s come to see us because they have problems and so accordingly to their problem we act to help them. I think it’s important to know how to recharge your batteries. For me I love doing yoga after hard day for work. It keeps me sain, it purifies my mind! Also I go out on the weekends doing different things, such as wind surfing, running or just having a beer in the pub. Try and see if it helps.
I agree with Vaidas that having things outside work to energize you are a must. But after you see a patient that drains you, I would say that you owe it to your next patient to re-energize yourself before you treat them. I would suggest a trip to the toilet, or getting a chocolate. The nursing stations always seem to have chocolate for sale. Or if you know you're prone to getting drained at times, maybe keep a chocolate stashed in your bag.
Post a Comment