Expert Practice

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I had a great opportunity to attend the Advanced Clinical Instructor Education and Credentialing Program through the APTA.  One portion that I really enjoyed was going over a few studies that looked at Expert Practice in Physical Therapy see here and here.  It made me look at myself to see if as a clinician was I working toward becoming an expert physical therapy practitioner.  Hopefully the other health care practitioners reading this will reflect on their own practice to see how they measure up.  If you need a health care practitioner, check to see if they measure up, if not you may want to look for one that does.

Common things found in many clinicians that did not differentiate average from expert, as one may think, were things like:  having a certain number years of experience or working specifically in a specialty area, caring for their patients and commitment to professional growth, and utilization of opportunities for continuing education.  While these are good qualities they did not differentiate an average clinician from an expert clinician.

What they found was what they labeled a Patient-Centered Approach in Expert Clinicians.  This is when the clinician made sure the patient was an active participant and the therapist primary goal is to empower the patient.  This was done through collaboration between therapist and patient through patient education and establishing a good patient-therapist relationship.  The expert clinician shows a high level clinical reasoning that is centered around patient needs.  They use their strong knowledge base along with skills in differential diagnosis and continual self reflection.  This knowledge base is grounded not only in academic knowledge but field experience in other areas outside of physical therapy.  Their knowledge is also used extensively with the use of movement observation.  The expert practitioner has a love of clinical care with non-stop inquisitiveness about life long learning.   They also have amazing humility even with their high level of expertise.  Their patient clinical style is one that patient education is central to their practice.  They individualize their treatment interventions to the patient, you will see every patient getting a different treatment based on evaluation of patient needs body, mind and spirit.

I have started reflecting more before, during and after each patient intervention to see if I am moving more toward patient-centered care approach.  I having been trying to keep in mind a few quotes when setting up patient intervention treatments:

• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." (Einstein)
• "You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away." (de Saint-Exupery)

So what are you challenging yourself with to become more of an expert in your practice?