assessment

S: At my placement at the alma street mental health ward, every patient that is admitted to this facility has a blanket referral. This means that regardless of their admittance status, they will be seen by the physiotherapist. Part of the initial consultation is an assessment screening process that is used as a baseline measure for their time on the ward. This allows a very generic scope of how the pt is going and any areas they can improve in.

T: my task was to complete an initial assessment form for all new pts. The assessment form is a very generic health and fitness indicator. It measures the very basics of fitness and health for each pt. My task each day is to run through this process with these new pts and complete this initial assessment form. This is also a good opportunity to build some rapport with these pts for further practice. There are approx 10 exercises to complete on the screening form so having some direction and consistency with the process is important.

A: On this given occasion I went to the ward and organized an appropriate time to see my pt. on the scheduled time I went to the ward and escorted them to the physiotherapy gym. Once at the gym I explained the whole process and approx, how long it would take. Then I took them through step by step with clear instructions regarding the process. I completed the whole screening process in approx 30 minutes and explained what the results indicated to the pt.

R: The result was a fairly in depth summary of this pts physical well being. The screening process has been carefully constructed to give an all round, appropriate indication of the pts status. This allows the PT to adequately assess how the pt is initially and the areas that require improvement. This particular pt was a heavy smoker and had a lot of room for improvement. Being a heavy smoke at such a young age, many people think it is too late to quit and that they will never return to their previous fitness levels. After explaining the benefits of quitting whilst they are still young and the positive prognosis for their health fitness, this pt was quite determined to make lifestyle improvements which was very rewarding.

E: aspects that could require improvement included –
• Conducting the assessment in a more systematic and linear form. This would allow the pt to have a smooth and easy assessment process.
• Adjusting my behavior appropriately to deal with mental health pts. Every mental health pt is different and unfortunately that means you must adjust your form of thinking and your attitude appropriately to deal with the different personality traits.
Aspects I thought I did well with included
• Giving an appropriate explanation of what the process involved. This means the pt knew what to expect and how long it would take etc.
• Giving a good explanation and the process behind why each exercise was useful for the pt and what it represented for the pt.

S: some strategies for improvement in the future include –
• Maintaining your environment prior to starting the assessment. Making sure you have a vacant gym and clear schedule so that you have access to all of the equipment is very important.
• Understand and know how to explain the normative values for all the assessments that you do so that you can give the pt a clear indication of where they stand in the context of each assessment.
• Have prior knowledge of the mental health disorder prior to staring so that you know what is “normal” for that pt and what to expect. Sometimes this prior knowledge will help you in your decision whether or not to proceed with the assessment when things begin to look “pear shaped”