When Speaking Professionally Makes Things Worse

Overview

Do you want to know how to speak to your patients without making them worse? We’ve been trained to speak professionally to our patients when interacting with them however, sometimes, what we say and how we say it can just as easily have a negative effect. Through the lens of a shoulder labral tear in a health care provider, Janet will work through a case study for those practicing in orthopaedic clinical settings.

Course Highlights

History Taking: Unveiling Narratives

Explore history taking, encouraging a narrative approach for a richer understanding. By avoiding direct questions and incorporating social history, we aim to capture a comprehensive picture, enhancing the therapeutic relationship.

Trauma-Informed Care: Identifying Trauma

Address the gap in physiotherapy training, focusing on recognizing patient trauma. We emphasize tools for identification and the importance of tailoring communication. Understanding the link between PTSD and pain, we guide practitioners in creating a safe space for patients to share their experiences.

Pitfalls of Communicating: Navigating Jargon

Unveiling communication pitfalls, we address the misuse of medical jargon and its impact. By dissecting jargon types and stressing clarity, we guide practitioners to consider what information to share, ensuring alignment with the patient's understanding and care plan.

Prevalence of ACEs: Context Matters

This section highlights the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their impact on patient perceptions. We explore how past experiences shape interpretations of diagnoses and treatment plans, urging practitioners to consider broader contexts in communication.

Health Literacy Focus

Delving into patient education, we guide practitioners to assess interpretability by individuals unfamiliar with healthcare terms. Acknowledging the broader impact of information, we stress tailoring communication based on education, emotions, and environment for holistic health literacy.

Learning Objectives

In this online course, we will:

1. Recognize vulnerabilities in patients, and the risk of being too professional in your communication style.
2. Identify other issues that may be affecting patient outcomes in orthopaedic disorders.
3. Identify and change ONE THING on the day following the webinar that can be changed to ensure optimal patient recovery

Audience:

This course course is for all clinicians, including physiotherapists, chiropractors, and kinesiologists.

Speaker Bio: Janet Holly, P.T.

Janet graduated from McMaster University in 1991 with her Bachelor of Health Science in Physiotherapy.  In 2012, she obtained the Clinical Specialist Certification in Pain Sciences and completed a Master of Science at McMaster. Her 30 years of experience working with complex, long-term pain and acute pain complicated by other significant co-morbidities has fostered a passion in pain management.

Janet is a Clinician Researcher at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. Her current research interest is investigating the use of virtual reality as a treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. She teaches nationally on the subjects of CRPS and complex pain.

Janet is a past chair of the Pain Science Division and was an Assessor for the Canadian Physiotherapy Association Specialty Program. She is a 30-year member or the Orthopaedic Division. She has had the good fortune to be part of the faculty for the International Association for the Study of Pain CRPS working group COMPACT and a member of the International Research Consortium for CRPS.