Patient not managing at home

Recently on my Neurological outpatient’s prac, I was treating this gentleman with degenerative neurological condition. He had been diagnosed with this condition for 10 year but was still able to live at home independently. He presented to outpatients, this time been the first time I had seen him reporting a severe pain in his left hip. He reported having this pain for a number of weeks with it becoming unbearable in the last few days.

With further questioning he reported that he wasn’t managing at home due to the severe pain. The pain was made worse when he suffered a spasm in his left leg. It was a negative support reaction or flexor withdraw response associated with his neurological condition.

Straight away I realised it was my duty to organise further referral to get to the bottom of this patients pain. Collaborating with my supervisor we had a medical team reviewed this patient within 30 mins and offer him an inpatient bed for further investigation.

The patient ended up on a rehabilitation ward for 2 weeks and had his pain thoroughly investigated and treated. It improved vastly and the patient was heading towards pre hospitalisation function. My prac ended, but it was assumed the patient was adequately rehabilitated to again function independently at home.

The time physiotherapists spend with patients in the rehabilitation setting, places them in a good position to understand there needs and basic requirements. The time spent with a client often reveals information that otherwise wouldn’t have been revealed if time was rushed. The example above highlights this; the physiotherapist initiated other services which benefited the patient. If this information wasn’t obtained the patient may have continued living at home not coping well.