December 13, 2021
What factors account for positive physical therapy outcomes?
It is often the case that we come to physical therapy because we are concerned about musculoskeletal pain. Physical therapy is a great avenue to explore and have a better understanding of why we have these pains. As a patient, you may think that rehabilitation is only concerned about the physical aspect of an injury, but it is frequently the case that there are many contributors as to how we successfully progress through care. The following are a few notable facets of our lives that may have significant implications on our ability to feel and move better.
Social Support
Social support can be very helpful while in physical therapy. Are your friends and loved ones aware that you are in pain? If not, it may be helpful for them to know that you are going through a difficult time and aren’t able to do the things you love the way you want to do them. This may explain why you haven’t really been yourself lately or haven’t been around as much. This will give the people that care about you an opportunity to help you reach your goals by simply being mindful of your experience. If you are having a difficult time finding social help, joining a support group can be immensely therapeutic. Support groups allow you to be heard and let you hear other people’s stories. Knowing that someone is going through something similar can be tremendously helpful.
Patient Knowledge/Education
The more comprehensive understanding you have about pain and your experience, the greater capacity you will have to feel better with physical therapy. This is why a knowledgeable, communicative, and trustworthy physical therapist is critical. Providing the patient specific knowledge about their case can empower the patient and give them the ability to independently manage their pain through self-management strategies, advice, and activity modifications.
Support of Healthcare Provider
Healthcare providers should be one of your biggest cheerleaders in your journey to resolving your pain. You should feel heard, understood, and respected. Here at Portland PT, it is imperative to us to be able to provide one-on-one sessions for this very reason. Spending one-on-one time with you really gives us an opportunity to get to know you on a deeper level and pick up on things that we may have missed if multiple patients were being treated simultaneously. We are big on celebrating the small wins and letting those wins snowball into a successful outcome.
Specific patient advice and individualized exercise program
In PT, one size does not fit all. Each case is truly unique. This warrants an individualized tailored program to the patient's needs. In order to do this, a dialogue needs to occur between the patient and PT. Having time spent one-on-one allows us to get into the nitty gritty of helping our patients. This can come in the form of specific advice such as how to modify activity, understand environmental and contextual factors, and gradually return ourselves to activities we love doing. This can also come in the form of very targeted exercises for you. Tell us what you love to do and we will find creative ways to reproduce those activities in a controlled clinical environment. Once you feel confident performing the activity with the supervision of a physical therapist, take the task and try it in a real world environment. The end goal of therapy is returning to activities you enjoy and being able to sustain the progress you made in therapy for the long haul.
Self-efficacy
Out of all the things discussed above, believing in your ability to get better will ultimately be one of your biggest determinants in successful rehabilitation. We often ask our patient’s ” how confident are you to successfully rehabilitate?” What you believe is what you see. The mind can be a very powerful thing. That is true with therapy. All of the points addressed above are huge factors in building and create self-efficacy of the patient. At our clinic, we like to provide patients with self-efficacy by building confidence with exercising while supplying patients with advice specific to their particular case.
Portland Physical Therapy would enjoy providing you the support, knowledge, and self-efficacy to reach your rehabilitation goals. Feel free to reach out to us to schedule a consultation at (207)-828-4455.
Citation
Spink A, Wagner I, Orrock P. Common reported barriers and facilitators for self-management in adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain: A systematic review of qualitative studies [published online ahead of print, 2021 Jul 24]. Musculoskelet Sci Pract. 2021;56:102433. doi:10.1016/j.msksp.2021.102433
Author: Brandon Drinan, PT, DPT, CSCS