In this episode, we shed light on impostor syndrome in healthcare. This all too common phenomenon is an isolating experience. Providers who feel like impostors are constantly striving to earn the acceptance they cannot give to themselves. This is most common in marginalized groups including people of color, first-generation college students, and women in male-dominated fields. If not addressed it worsens as people attain more prestige/higher positions and is associated with burnout.  We share our experiences with impostor syndrome and how this has affected us in the clinic. Feeling inadeq ..read more

In this episode, we finish with part 4 of the SOAP note series: Plan of Care & Prognosis. Often the plan of care is an afterthought, something we consider when documenting or perhaps the last 5 minutes of the evaluation when we schedule follow-up visits. So we asked ourselves “How do we form a mutually agreed-upon plan, which is realistic and considerate of the patient and the provider?”  We share the tips which have helped us create more collaborative plans with patients and the assumptions and fears which have gotten in the way. Our own fears and psychosocial factors can affect the ..read more

We are kicking off a 4 part series to explore patient-centered care from where it all begins - the evaluation. We break it into sections using the SOAP note model: Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan. We discuss what we could do to improve rapport with our patients, our efficiency and accuracy in getting to the root of a problem while partnering with our patients as active collaborators. In this episode, we focus on the subjective including building rapport, understanding the patient’s experience, and wrapping the subjective up into the objective. How do we learn their story and how do ..read more

In this episode, we share our growth-spurt experiences as physical therapists. We realized during mentoring that ALL physical therapists experience growth spurts. It’s how we evolve our clinical practice! So long as we keep learning, there will always be periods of change followed by periods that are more steady as we integrate the new information into our practice. We also share our signs of being in a growth spurt and tips for navigating these with less overwhelm!    Thank you for listening to The Conscious Clinician. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and write a review ..read more

We have spent 36 episodes exploring how to work with someone, build better rapport, collaborate,  move past our own and the patient's roadblocks to improving our quality of care and work. We realized that we haven't talked about when PT is not the answer and how we know we need to end care. In this episode, we explore the reasons why you may choose to recommend discharge, including what we say and examples of how we handle these conversations. We can practice within our ethics AND support the patient to get the care that’s best for them.    Highlights from our conversation in Ep ..read more

In this episode, we explore fear avoidance. As humans, we all experience fear and some of us exhibit fear avoidance behaviors. As people exhibit more fear avoidance, they also report higher pain intensity levels. This has consistently shown up in pelvic pain, pelvic girdle pain, and persistent musculoskeletal conditions.  We talk through Sammy’s patient who exhibited high fear avoidance and how they began confronting it. We also explore how fear-avoidance influenced Monika’s clinical practice and how often we see this with healthcare providers. It’s not just patients who demonstrate fear ..read more

One of the few positives from the pandemic was the widespread access to telehealth medical services. Our bet is that it’s here to stay. We have been providing telehealth PT since March 2021. We recognize that while it’s convenient for patients and providers, it does change the way we interact with our patients. Additionally, providing telehealth from your own home creates unique challenges for providers.  In this episode, we focus on how to prepare and care for yourself to provide telehealth. We explore the way that communication changes when it’s virtual and we offer tips that have helpe ..read more

In this episode, we unpack overwhelm and burnout with Dr. Yolanda Johnson, MD, FAAP. As a pediatrician, mom, and coach for women in healthcare, Yolanda knows that doing it all means burning out. She shares practical tips to start shifting out of survival mode and begin discovering who you are, how you want to work, and what needs to change. For the first time, Dr. Yolanda shares her experience of impostor syndrome during residency and how that led to her passion for coaching. We dive deep into the counterintuitive need to slow down and do less when we feel overwhelmed, how to face our inner cr ..read more

Picture this, you’re working with a new student or have someone shadowing you. They are eager to learn about your field and have tons of questions to ask you AND the patient. While you love their desire to learn, it’s also affecting the flow of the session.  We’ve certainly been there, so in this episode, we dissect why and how having another person in the room affects patient-centered communication and care. This applies to observers, interns, students, mentors, and anyone else who might be a third body in the treatment space.  We discuss  How having an additional person in th ..read more

In this episode, we focus on the power of language in clinical practice. We’ve all seen patients who are hypervigilant or scared of movement because they’ve heard their pelvis is unstable, their pelvic floor muscles are too weak, they have disc degeneration, etc.  These biomechanical and kinesiopathological explanations of pain paint an image that their body is broken and they must rely on our help to fix it. So we have to consider every statement that we're making and have an intent behind it.  How does this sound to someone who doesn’t know much about anatomy and treatment? Are we ..read more