Hey Hey,
I've been stuck on this idea about firsts this week. Client comes in with a scan and someone has already told them they are f*c*ed. How do we come back from that?
A GP with four minutes. A radiologist writing for another doctor. A mate at work. Or the report itself, read on their phone in the car park while they googled every single word in it.
Think — reflect
- Who got there before you last week?
- And did you actually address it, or did you talk quietly over the top of it like I used to?
For example, the ones who say the disc thing. The bone-on-bone thing. My back is basically an eighty year old's back. Somebody said that to them. It didn't come out of nowhere.
Learn
Sharma, Traeger and colleagues, BMJ Open 2020.
A qualitative evidence synthesis, 69 studies and 1747 people with chronic low back pain.
The finding that stopped me is that people hold onto pathological imaging findings as evidence their pain is real.
Which reframes the whole conversation. When I explain the scan away, some of them hear me explaining their pain away. That's not helpful.
Play
Have a crack at asking one client what they took away from the scan.
Not what it says. What they took.
Then work with that, instead of the version you assumed was in their head.
Let me know how you go?
Cheers
Jess
PS — oi, don't forget The Clinical Collective is free to join. Clinicians just like you, cleaning up after someone else's four minute explanation.