The Importance of Reflecting every week

The most important thing I have learned since finishing physical therapy school is that we always must act with purpose.  What I mean by this is that as a health care professional it is my duty to treat my patients with the highest quality and integrity.  Part of what that includes is making sure I do the very best I can for my patients.  With the abundance of changes in the physical therapy world it is important to me to reflect on how my patient's are doing each week.  

Every week I spend a few hours reviewing what went on with my patients and how my treatment plan needs to evolve in the upcoming weeks.  What I have learned from this over the past few years is that this process has become a integral part to my growth as a physical therapist.  Some weeks I spend more time on communication and others I spend more time on different exercises or manual therapy interventions.  It would be very easy to just sit back every week and not update or think about the small changes week to week with treatment plans.  But I believe it is very important to spend some time reflecting each week to not only improve as a heath care professional but to give the highest quality of care to our patients.  Below are the 5 questi ons I ask myself each week.

1.  What did I do well with this week?
2.  What did I do poorly with this week?
3.  Are my patient's on track to where I anticipated they would be after the initial evaluation and treatment plan?
4.  Who or what needs to be updated/changed?
5.  What knowledge or skill do I need to improve for this certain patient?

Try to reflect each week on your patients and yourself.  You will benefit greatly.  

-  Brian

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uSC Sports Residency reflection