Top 5 Fridays! 5 #PTProblems

There are certain aspects of our profession that honestly have me scratching my head, or banging it against a wall. Here are 5 of them

1) Early patients

they come 15-20 minutes early and say something like "Can I hop on the bike?" or "How about some heat while I wait?"
SERIOUSLY? Do you just walk in to your hair stylist and ask to start washing your hair before your appointment time?
At your dentist, do you walk right past the secretary, sit in a chair and start brushing your teeth yourself?

2) Late patients

In my experience, calling and saying you're going to be

5 minutes late = 10 minutes late
10 minutes late = 15 minutes late
15 minutes late = please reschedule, you just missed 50% of your appointment

do people do this for their dentist, stylist, or restaurant reservations? No... they try to make it on time, and expect NOT to be taken after a certain amount of time
why are we de-valued?
I'm sure it is perpetuated by those clinics seeing 4 people an hour per PT, if you get no 1:1 time, I'm sure appointment times are mere suggestions rather than something you have to keep

3) Maintenance Adjustments

Patients are so convinced that maintenance adjustments are making them better, keeping them aligned, etc...
to me, a biweekly adjustment and/or even worse, a monthly adjustment, is like working out once every other week or monthly and saying you're losing weight or getting stronger

4) I tried PT and it didn't work

do people say, "I tried restaurant and the food was bad, so I'm never eating out again!"
of course not, but apparently all PT is the same
the frustrating thing about being a better clinician is the other ones out there are ruining it for you!

5) Intra-professional fighting or reducing different approaches

we don't need the DPT, or new grads not being allowed to call themselves "doctor" in the clinic

well, it's here to stay, get used to it

MDT is only prone pressups

If McKenzie stopped when the OMPT world criticized him, thousands upon thousands of patients would be left with passive treatments and most likely not better

Rocabado is just 6x6 exercise program

don't get me started on this

who needs dry needling?

people who improve from it

You don't need a big toolbox

I don't know about you, but the whole movement toward clinical decision making vs better toolbox is pretty myopic, it's not "VS"
why not have both, it's the best of both worlds!
if somehow you can rely on putting all of your eggs in 1-2 baskets you're a better clinician than most
I certainly use much less "technique" than I was originally trained with, but to say that you don't need a bigger toolbox is short sighted, especially when you've only been out a few years

we all get patients better regardless of our assessment, training, and interactions, but there are patients who will not respond to your tried and true and you WILL need a different way to look at things, explain things, or treatment to get improvements to stick