This week, at my gerontology placement, I conducted a initial assessment of a patient who had been diagnosed with parkinsons disease earlier in the year. She was about 10 years younger than the youngest person I had treated with parkinsons up to this point. I had read in her notes that she was in her 60's, however when I met her, she presented as being still rather youthful. The reason why this was a little more challenging for me was that up to now, my patients with parkinson's disease all had the disease for at least 5 years, and were also considerably older. Therefore with this patient, I was unsure as to how she was feeling about having the disease at a stage in her life, when she was still very active, going for long walks, going to the gym, and very keen on watching sports etc.
Many of the tests we do for initial assessment and annual review, appear to be designed for patients, who are further down the track with the disease, and are struggling with functiona and transfers. So I did feel like the tests might be a little patronising for her. However, she suprised me by being enthusiastic about the assessments, even though she excelled at them, and even remarked on enjoying doing the 6 MWT, as she loves going for walks.
The lesson I learnt from this, was that even though patients seem youthful, and maybe early on in their disease process, they would still like to be thoroughly looked after, as they would not like to have anything go under the radar and not be picked up, with later consequences. It is still important to be tactful however.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
As you so rightly suggest here it is very important not to make assumptions about how someone is or is not coping with their illness.
Working with patients with a neurodegenerative condition can be very challenging for a therapist. Being very close to someone has a neurodegenerative condition i can say from my first hand experience that "they have good days and they have bad days" this applies both from a physical and psychological point of view. It will take all of your skills - communication, professionalism, clinical skills along with the your inate personal skills of compassion and empathy to be able to do your very best for these patients under very testing circumstances. A word of warning for you all - make sure you have a reply ready for when they ask you to end it all for them - if you work in this area i am sure you will have it asked one day.
Post a Comment