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Best Piece of Advice Session 2
415 Plays2 months ago
In this session, Miranda and Shannon share their best pieces of advice for aspiring hand therapists. Shannon, a new grad entering the field, and Miranda, an experienced therapist, discuss essential tips for success, overcoming challenges, and providing top-notch patient care.
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Transcript
Introduction to Hand Therapy Academy
00:00:07
mmateri
Hi, I'm Miranda Materi.
00:00:08
Shannon Skowbo
And I'm Shannon Scalbo and we are Hand Therapy Academy.
00:00:12
mmateri
All right, welcome back Shannon. We have Shannon on the call again today and she is going to be asking some more questions.
00:00:21
Shannon Skowbo
Yes, I am.
Best Hand Therapy Advice
00:00:22
mmateri
Here you go.
00:00:22
Shannon Skowbo
My hi next question is ah what is the best piece of hand therapy advice you've ever received? And that could be like an advice on one specific intervention um or just being a better therapist.
00:00:36
mmateri
Yeah, that I think that I've been given a lot of really good advice, right? So I think this question was ah like, when you asked us, like, this is kind of a hard one, like, there, I've been given and I don't want to miss something that I thought was really important.
Beyond Physical Pain: Emotional Considerations
00:00:50
mmateri
And I think that that more recently, there's some things that have stuck out to me. So I'll share that one. And then um I'm going to go back to early on in my career, what I thought was good advice. or what I think is good advice and one thing that I was um told was that people's pain may not be physical in nature and I think I kind of knew it but also um we don't always know the emotional pain that people are suffering and how it manifests physically, right?
00:01:17
Shannon Skowbo
Thank
00:01:19
mmateri
So I think thinking about that, um I think has really helped to guide some of my treatments.
00:01:22
Shannon Skowbo
you.
00:01:24
mmateri
Not that I'm still you know treating it very much how we would if it was the physical omelet, but also just making sure I'm really completely understanding the patient and seeing them in a more more holistic perspective. So I think that was really good advice that was given.
00:01:42
mmateri
Okay. and
00:01:43
Shannon Skowbo
ah Were you going to go? you said yeah Are you going to go back to one from your earlier?
00:01:47
mmateri
Yeah, yeah. I'm going to go back to my early ones. I just didn't know if you had anything to say or add to that.
00:01:49
Shannon Skowbo
Oh, I know I did it. I did it.
00:01:51
mmateri
or Okay. Okay. Good.
Balancing Likeability and Effectiveness
00:01:53
mmateri
Um, and I think earlier on, I think knowing that I think I always had a desire to try to win people over and make them like me as a, as a new therapist. Like I always was wanting to make sure that patient really liked me the best as a therapist and all those things. And I think, um, i Don't know who told me this but they were like not everyone's gonna like you your job is to you know Be the best therapist you can be your job is not to win every over every patient and I think that was helpful and took a lot of pressure off right because I would if you didn't win them over and you weren't their favorite then um Or you had that desire to be liked as opposed to the desire to be a good therapist and that's not why I would do it I'm not being a therapist to be liked I'm being a therapist to be a good therapist, right?
00:02:42
Shannon Skowbo
Mm.
00:02:43
mmateri
That's not what I went. I went to school to be a good therapist and and I do like to be liked, but that's secondary.
00:02:49
Shannon Skowbo
Right. i I feel that way all the time, actually. That'll be something I think that's hard to drop. Like, especially as like a new therapist, I think you take it maybe a little more personally. um isn't But I know as soon as like an eval comes in, I'm like, oh, like, this is gonna, this is gonna be harder for us to, um or Not for us to get along, but like they seem like they're gonna be a little more difficult or angry I always am like I'm like, okay drop everything you are my full like Undivided you have my direct eye contact.
00:03:22
Shannon Skowbo
Like I I'm gonna make my best jokes I'm gonna give you I don't you know what I mean?
00:03:26
mmateri
Yeah.
00:03:27
Shannon Skowbo
Like I I turn on to like a completely different character because I want that person to just um Really feel cared for
00:03:32
mmateri
Yeah. But then you're like, why does, yeah. And, but why does that patient get the best of you as opposed to the others? You know what
Patient Attention and Avoiding Burnout
00:03:39
mmateri
I mean? Like, why do you have to bring out your best jokes for that patient that, you know, is, I, that's what I would say is yeah everybody deserves, you know, equal fair treatment. So I try to just be fair and not have my best jokes or my best for that one patient. And also, I think, you know, I burned myself out trying to be liked by so many people. It was exhausting. Right? Because you're not only trying to be good there, but you're trying to win someone over. And that's just a lot.
00:04:09
Shannon Skowbo
Right. Yeah. And it's not that I'm like trying to give better care, I guess. I think it's just like sometimes you have to work harder for people that you don't necessarily mesh with. And um like just trying to like better match like what you think that they want you to bring to the table.
00:04:19
mmateri
<unk>
00:04:25
Shannon Skowbo
um But that totally does. um Like i I at the end of those ones, I feel like exhausted.
00:04:33
mmateri
Yeah. Yeah. it It makes, um, I think, yeah, it just it leads to more burnout, I think. And not that I don't think we need to, you know, try to match styles and stuff, but I think too, there's only so much, you know, you can do. And I think the other thing that is nice about our clinic is we have multiple therapists. So sometimes patients just don't drive. wood jive with one therapist and they need to be switched to someone else, right? And I think that's okay too. Like, Oh, I think your style more, you know, matches your life with super analytical.
00:05:00
Shannon Skowbo
Mm hmm.
00:05:02
mmateri
I think you do really well with Megan or something like that, you know?
00:05:04
Shannon Skowbo
Mm hmm.
00:05:05
mmateri
So I think also matching patients based on um personalities can be helpful as well.
00:05:05
Shannon Skowbo
Right.
Handling Patient Discharge
00:05:11
Shannon Skowbo
Definitely.
00:05:12
mmateri
So that was one piece of advice early on that I can share. Um, I think two is, um, When another thing I think students or new grads have a hard time with is discharging patients, right? Like ending the therapeutic relationship. And I think, so one piece of advice um that I've been given is that you handle it when you know that someone needs to be discharged. Don't keep putting it off. you you need to address it right away. you know Maybe you give them the talk and then you know you say, okay, by the next visit, we're gonna take your final measurements and those things. I think you probably do a little bit better because of your, commute you're pretty a direct communicator, but I do know for a lot of therapists, they struggle with that. So I think um one piece of advice that I was given was just to make sure that you don't put those off. When they need to happen, they need to happen. And it can be difficult when you've been seeing patients for a long period of time to
00:06:07
mmateri
to do it, but putting it off only makes it harder.
00:06:10
Shannon Skowbo
Right.
00:06:12
mmateri
yeah
00:06:12
Shannon Skowbo
Definitely. Yeah, i but I for some reason I've always felt comfortable having those conversations but I think that like something that we've um like obvious like throughout you know the weeks of their care worse, sometimes they're seeing being seen by both me and the other therapist and um the in the clinic and so sometimes it's easier to like whoever the therapist they're not as close with to like okay like we're going to schedule them on your schedule and like could you start that conversation um because it's less emotional right it just kind of makes it a little more objective that way it's like who which one of us is best suit to start this conversation
00:06:43
mmateri
Yeah.
00:06:48
mmateri
Right, and let them know what's happening. Yeah, I feel like that's really hard and that's a good idea if you if you do have that option to do
Innovating Treatments for Value
00:06:55
mmateri
that. um I think another piece of it advice I've been given is to always give them something new at each each session. So you're changing your plan of care or adapting their treatment based on um how they're presenting to you that day instead of like always just doing the same thing over and over again. I think that was a really powerful thing. So every time I see a patient, I try to think like, have you have you changed what's instead of being like, Oh, we're going to keep doing the same thing.
00:07:23
mmateri
If you can add something new or take something away, that just shows that you're offering a skilled service versus them just coming in and you know doing the same thing over and over each day. I think that's how we can justify um our services and also so people see value in what we're doing.
00:07:40
Shannon Skowbo
Right. I think that's also what's nice, like the um advantage to being in a clinic with more than just one therapist is that um sometimes a fresh set of eyes is really nice on a plan of care. um So like, you know, if you have someone that you've been seeing for a long time, like having them schedule with the other therapist for maybe a session or two, and like, then you get them back and they're doing a couple new things, you know, like, sometimes it's like hard to think out of the box when you've been seeing the same, when you've been doing the same thing over and over for so long.
00:08:10
mmateri
Right. And then like, when they come in and you ask the subjective, right? Like, I think a lot of times we like to write the same, the patient will be like, I'm doing fine. You know, when you ask, like, how are you doing this? Say I'm doing fine. Um, I think sometimes asking more targeted questions can be helpful. Like, Hey, have you noticed your pain going down? Have you noticed any changes? of ademon Have you been able to do anything that you weren't able to do last week? I think asking some of those questions can help change our interventions and guide our treatment a little better.
00:08:39
Shannon Skowbo
that That actually just happens to me like the other day. I was i was like, hi hi, how's your hand doing? It's okay. Okay, can we expand? Can we expand a little bit on what okay is?
00:08:47
mmateri
yeah
00:08:51
Shannon Skowbo
Like patient reports hand is okay.
00:08:54
mmateri
i know I know sometimes you have to dig a little deeper and I think sometimes people don't want to complain right they don't want to like say like this is what's going wrong so I think sometimes you know you don't have to ask a little bit more directed questions.
00:08:59
Shannon Skowbo
Totally.
00:09:04
Shannon Skowbo
Yeah, or like sometimes if you like I don't think um sometimes they're not always like bringing aware once something has been happening for a certain amount of time you're not always like bringing awareness like to those things unless someone asks you prompts you for it.
00:09:18
mmateri
Yeah, that's it.
00:09:18
Shannon Skowbo
Like what activities can you do now that you know you weren't able to two weeks ago or whatever it may be.
00:09:24
mmateri
Yeah, that's very true.
Closing and Contact Information
00:09:26
mmateri
Okay, that is our time for today. Thanks Shannon for coming on. Go ahead. If you have questions, email us info at hand therapy Academy or check us out at hand therapy Academy.