Patient Participation Is Necessary Within Rehabilitation
Results from an MPH thesis show that patients want to participate in planning their own rehabilitation, together with therapists and clinicians. This ensures them control and overview during their rehabilitation process.
“Professionals should give the patient room for participation,” says Hanne Vest Hansen, nursing specialist.
Her study shows that in a prolonged rehabilitation process for spinal cord injured patients, patient participation in patient conferences can be very helpful and provide great support for the patients. Patient conferences can contribute to the experience of control and overview in a chaotic situation.
The initial rehabilitation after a spinal cord injury is often longstanding and implicates severe demands on the patients. Multiple, lifelong and substantial disabilities often follow spinal cord injuries. To support the rehabilitation process all patients and their relatives are invited to participate in planning their own rehabilitation at interdisciplinary patient conferences.
In her study, Hanne Vest Hansen looked into the patients’ experiences of the conferences, and what this experience meant to them. The study shows that even the newly spinal cord injured- and grieving patients actively wanted to participate in decisions about their rehabilitation. The patients and their relatives also experienced the conferences as supportive in an otherwise chaotic situation. Participation creates motivation and helps to maintain integrity.
The patients furthermore experienced emotional vulnerability and needed emotional help from both the interdisciplinary team and relatives. Having relatives present was seen as supportive when it came to remembering important questions and answers. Some patients also found that the attendance of relatives at the conferences was an opportunity and great help for updating the relatives about vital and critical information.
The atmosphere, intimacy and location of the patient conferences were of critical importance to the patients, and they preferred that only the regular daily team attended. The patient conferences were considered as a necessity in the rehabilitation process.
Physical Activity Goals Can Greatly Benefit Lives Of RA Patients
According to an investigation now available in Arthritis Care and Research, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), investigators from The Netherlands report physical activity goals are more likely to be achieved if the patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has a higher level of self-efficacy for physical activity. Achievement of physical activity goals is linked with lower self-reported arthritis pains and increased health-related quality of life (HRQOL).
RA is a chronic autoimmune disease which causes inflammation in the lining of joints and The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that it affects almost 1% of the worlds population. The ACR reports that in the U.S. 1.3 million adults suffer from RA. Investigations revealed that patients cite pain and stiffness as the biggest limiting factors of their illness, and report lower HRQOL than healthy individuals. Those with RA who do not engage in regular physical activity have a more pronounced effect from the disease.
Keegan Knittle, MSc, from Leiden University in The Netherlands and colleagues surveyed 106 patients with RA to evaluate physical activity, motivation and self-efficacy for physical activity, level of arthritis pain, and quality of life, for the current investigation. After six months, participants were surveyed again and asked to indicate the extent to which to which they achieved their baseline physical activity goal. Previous investigations have revealed that self-efficacy, described as one’s belief in his or her own capabilities to perform a specific behavior, is connected with raised physical activity participation among patients with RA.
75% of participants rated their physical activity goal achievement at 50% or more, results revealed. The likelihood that patients would achieve their goals increased with higher levels of self-efficacy for physical activity, and achieving goals had a direct positive effect upon quality of life outcomes. Those who achieved their physical activity goal reported less arthritis pain and greater quality of life, investigators discovered. Also no differences were discovered between men and women who completed the surveys, or between those newly diagnosed versus patients with RA for 10 years or more.
What Makes Us Different
Our vision for Body in Balance is to provide the aging population tools to live as well as possible throughout their lifespan. This goal will be realized by providing physical therapy with a fitness area for older adults that includes the aging spectrum; the well-elderly as well as the frail and disabled.
We are certified and extremely qualified in the areas of Physical Therapy. Below are a list of some of our qualifications.
1. Master’s Degree in Physical Therapy.
2. Certified Exercise Expert for the Aging Adult (CEEAA) certified through the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA).
3. Board Certified Geriatric Specialist through the American Physical Therapy Association.
4. Certified in scoliosis physical therapy (Schroth Method).
5. We offer Concussion Rehabilitation with Biodex Concussion Pro.
What We Do
Our company’s mission is to address the needs of both patients and clients through a continuum of quality services by providing evidence based interventions for existing and emerging musculoskeletal problems, preventing or reducing the risk of additional complication, and promoting wellness and fitness to enhance human performance as it relates to movement and health.
