S- My patient was referred to women's health outpatients clinic for lower back and buttocks pain, she was 38 weeks gestation and spoke little english however her husband was present to translate.
T- My task was to assess this woman and devise strategies for management of her pain. I only had 30mins due to a double booking.
A- The subjective assessment took longer than I had anticipated due to the language barrier. With the objective assessment I was only able to assess her back and buttock in sidelying and sitting positions due to the woman being 38 weeks gestation. I found that changing positions caused her pain and discomfort.
R- Eventually I was able to determine that the pain was coming from an overactive piriformis muscle in her left buttock. However this was after tedious subjective questioning and extensive objective assessment. Due to my lack of planning my patient had to keep moving around on the plinth so I could achieve the appropriate position for assessment.
E- On reflection I found it difficult to communicate with the patient due to the language barrier particularly when searching for the pain objectively. I also felt that the sequence of my objective assessment was not efficient as I had to get the patient to move into different positions continously which caused them some discomfort and possibly could have exacerbated their pain.
S- I think with practise my communication through an interpreter will improve but I will endeavor to simplify my questions and instructions to make it as clear as possible to translate to the patient. Also by taking a minute before I begin my objective to organise my assessment so that I can achieve all my tests in one position and then change will help with the efficiency of my assessment and also make it more comfortable for my patient.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment