Comprehensive treatment

In the final week of my musculoskeletal prac i found myself recieving patients who were presenting with slightly more vaired conditions. While I still recieved the same number of back pain and knee pain patients, I also managed to see shoulders and upper limb injuries, which I had no experience with. However, given that my approach to treating patients had changed considerably since the first week, I did not find my inexperience with shoulders to be a barrier to effective treatment. Over the past three weeks I had found myself incorporating information learned from units such as Musc 352 and epa, even though I initially would no have expected it given the patient referrals. For instance it took me a week to remember that I could use the available TENS machine to manage the pain of my patient who had developed sensitisation problems, and this allowed me to optimise the treatment session time as pain was no longer a limiting factor to his active movement and range.
The same could be said of using Hold relax when trying to gain additional range in patients who had developed tight hamstrings due to a stooped gait due to low back pain.
While none of this is rocket science, I did noetheless find it difficult to recall, and feel that my treatments became considerably more comprehensive as a result of me applying the knowledge that I had learned in all 4 years, not just 3rd year. Admittedly I should ahve revised more prior to beginning the placement, but I found it easier to revise things that I thought would impace directly on the patients condition in my opinion. I think tahat I have learned as a result of this that the treatment modalities that we have at our disposal are much more comprehsnive then I had initially thought. Wether it be providing our own form of pain relief or having more of an impact with patient education, the units that recieved less of an emphasis (psych, EPA, movt science) can all prove effective in managing a patient if we choose to apply them, and this can result in more comprehensive treatment.