I have been trying to put what I have been learning at my job down on this blog ever since I started. I have failed and have only been able to mention what it is that i am getting out of my intern once. So finally I can put something else down that I feel is necessary for me to remember in order for me to have any chance of being a good therapist down the road. No homo, I was watching Good Will Hunting tonight and there is a part where Robin Williams is in the middle of teaching a class about how to be a good psychologist. During the short dialogue of this scene he poses the question "Why is trust the most important thing between the patient and therapist". One of his students replies " because trust is life" or something like that. So I paused the movie and thought about the question myself and tried to relate it to the relationship between a Physical Therapist and his patient(s). In my head I replay the question "Why is trust the most important thing between the patient and therapist?". Since I was playing the movie on my laptop I couldn't open up my blog to brainstorm and record my answer to that very simplistic but insightful question, so i grabbed the closest piece of paper next to me and found a pen on the floor and began rambling.
What i ended up coming up with for the answer is that without trust then there is now way that the patient will be willing to do what you tell them to. The patient needs to know that without a doubt that you have their best interest in mind and that you are the person that can get them healthy again. If you fail to build trust with your patient i feel that it is highly probable that they will not finish there rehabilitation regimen, and at that point the only person that is losing out is the patient. As a therapist your whole goal is to keep your patient motivated so they continue to work towards completion of their program, no matter how long it takes. So it is vital that throughout their program you prove to your patient that you are dedicated in getting them to their end goal. Thus building trust.
I have noticed this at Silverado. What i mean is that I have noticed how much trust affects the motivation and quality of the rehabilitation. For example, there are a couple of patients that i work with daily that have slight cases of dementia. They are mostly there but it seems that at least once a day they are confused on who I am and what they are doing in our clinic. Once they are in this confused state they immediately stop what they were doing and ultimately "quit" the rehab program at that moment. The patient will then look up at me and ask me in a variety of ways, "What am I doing here?" or "Who are you (referring to me), and why are you having me do this". At that moment it is clear that as a result of there dementia they do not have any trust in their surroundings let alone me, and have thus questioned there routine and most importantly they do not trust that I am there to help them. What I have to do is tell them exactly where they are, remind them that they have had a hip replacement and that I am working with them so they can get back to walking and ultimately go back home to their lives. Once I reestablish that trust between the patient and I the results are off the charts. Well until they relapse into their blank mind again, but nonetheless while they remember and know what my goal is for them they are more then willing to comply with my direction for them.
I don't know why it took the question that Robin Williams posed in the movie to realize that trust is vital for success in the health care world, but better late than never.
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