Introduction to CST ⑪ - On Presentation
What are your thoughts on presentation?
Presentation also requires knowledge and technique. To begin with, are you even conscious of your presentation?
Simply put, it is about whether you are properly performing pre- and post-treatment assessments, but there is something many practitioners are doing wrong here. That is, focusing only on their own assessments. While there are certainly cases where only the practitioner needs to understand, I would like you to incorporate assessments that the patient can also realize.
＜Reasons to be conscious of presentation＞
・Helping the patient grasp their current situation
・Helping the patient notice changes and effects of the treatment
・Influencing the course of treatment
・Enhancing the patient's sensory awareness
・Noticing unexpected changes
As you can see, presentation is actually incredibly important. If you have the skills, can reliably cure patients, and always keep them satisfied, you might not need to be that conscious of your presentation.
For example, if a patient has back pain when walking, you could treat them silently without saying anything. As a result, they no longer feel pain when walking. If you can reliably produce such results, perhaps presentation is unnecessary.
However, if your presentation is too poor, there are cases where the symptoms are cured, but the patient is not satisfied.
Have you ever had an experience like this?
After treatment, the range of motion has clearly changed, but the patient doesn't notice the change at all and says, "Hmm, it hasn't really changed." Have you ever had that happen? As a practitioner, you might say, "It has changed a lot!" but they still don't notice. One cause of this is that your presentation is wrong. Another is the patient's poor sensory awareness, but depending on your presentation, you can cover for that to some extent.
＜When you understand and practice presentation＞
・They will notice changes in their body
・It becomes easier to formulate future treatment plans
・You will gain their trust
・The patient will tell you the answers
・The patient's sensory awareness will improve
・It becomes easier to get repeat visits
・Satisfaction levels increase
These are the benefits. You just need to add presentation to your existing treatment. If your presentation improves, your treatment effectiveness will definitely increase as well. For patients with whom you can communicate well, presentation is an essential element that you must absolutely be conscious of. There is no downside to being conscious of your presentation. In fact, there are more advantages.
I have also attended various seminars in the past, but I was never taught in detail about presentation. As a practitioner, it is something I should know, so I wondered why it wasn't being taught. And then, I understood the reason. It is because there are still very few practitioners who are conscious of presentation.
Actually, it is the practitioners who do not work in hospitals and run their own clinics who place more importance on presentation. In particular, many clinics that provide self-pay treatments are very conscious of presentation. This is because if they don't increase patient satisfaction even a little, they won't get repeat visits. However, physical therapists and occupational therapists working in hospitals and facilities, honestly, lack that sense of urgency and are not conscious of presentation. But you cannot keep doing that. To increase your value as a practitioner, you must think carefully about how much you can satisfy the patient. As one part of that, you must study presentation more.
◇Points of presentation
・Have the patient understand their body's condition
・Have the patient move themselves and realize it
・Have them move areas other than the one they are complaining about
・Compare the practitioner's assessment with the patient's self-awareness
・After treatment, confirm the content assessed before treatment
・It is important whether the patient notices the change
These are rough points, but please try to perform assessments and treatments while being conscious of these things. Especially if you have few years of experience and are just doing treatments where you throw everything you know at them, frankly speaking, rather than lengthening the treatment time, spend that time on assessments to help the patient understand their condition. It is especially important to be conscious of presentation during the initial visit.
≪Tips for presentation≫
※Include treatments that will surprise the patient ※Break the patient's common sense
Why is it necessary to surprise them? It is to create an impact. If you can get the patient to say, "What! Why?", then you have hooked them. The way to do this is to produce changes in areas unrelated to the part they are complaining about, which will have a greater impact on the patient. Alternatively, it is also effective to produce changes with just a momentary treatment or a treatment that adds almost no stimulation to the area they are complaining about. Regarding specific presentation methods, there is a limit to what can be written in text, so I will share them at a study session if the opportunity arises.
Presentation includes how to assess, how to treat, and how to talk. If you combine these well, you can achieve better results than now and increase patient satisfaction.
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