"Oh, before I go, can you look at my..."

Hi, everyone, it's Chris from Patient Centered Training and today's video I wanted to share. Quick tip for a way to handle a situation that I'm sure you've had several times before, something we discuss with colleagues all the time. Either colleagues I'm training or our new graduates. Usually within the first few weeks, they'll experience this as well. And it's a bit of a difficult situation because there's different, different ways of handling it. And clinicians often feel like they're not sure they handled it the right way or if they could have handled it better, because we don't want to risk disappointing the patient. But equally, we don't want to put ourselves in a situation which might come back to bite us. And the situations where a patient has been coming in, they've been coming in for a few sessions. Maybe you've known them for a while. Maybe it's a maintenance visit and during a regular treatment appointment, maybe it's, you know, usually right at the end, I find actually, as you're about to see the next patient, they go, oh, by the way, I wanted to ask you, elbow's been really hurting lately. Can you have a look at that? And we've all had this before, and straight away we're in a bit of a dilemma because we want to help them. We want to, you know, often it's something we can help with. It's a quite straightforward tennis elbow, the kind of thing we get good results with and we want to help them out. But equally, we don't want to put ourselves in a situation where we're doing a rush job and we're not giving them our best level of care. So clinicians often struggle with this a little bit as to how to balance those two things, especially if you're not going to see the patient maybe for a few weeks or a month, you don't necessarily want to put them off all that time when they're in pain. And equally, you don't want to seem like you haven't taken them seriously, but just suddenly having a go and trying to treat it especially very rushed, quickly at the end, like a quick adjustment and a bit of work on the muscle. It's not a great situation there either. And the way I handle this, I actually learned this off Ulrich Sandstrom. He came to one of my seminars a few years ago and we were chatting at lunch and he shared how he deals with it. And I've actually found this works better than anything I tried before. So full credit to Ulrich. I'm just stealing his idea today, this came from him. And what he pointed out is he said, really, the patient's not looking at that stage for you to fix it there. And then they're just looking for some guidance. They're coming to you with it because they trust you, because you've shown you can already help them with something else. They wouldn't usually bring this up on the second or the third visit. It's when they're feeling better with, let's say, their low back issue they came to you with. You've proven yourself to them. They now know you're someone they can trust as someone who can help them. So now they'd like to see if you can help with this as well. And they're really just looking for guidance. They want to know, is this something I should bring you, or do you just do backs? Should I go see somebody else about it? And if you can answer that question, you're going to give them extra value. And it doesn't have to put you in a position where you're feeling like you're rushed with anything. So for the tennis elbow example, what he said he would do is he would have a quick look at it, just enough to confirm some suspicions. So he'd maybe do a couple of tests, check, okay, that's painful. Yeah, that's it. He goes, okay, I'm pretty sure I know what that is. That looks like a pretty typical case of tennis elbow. My experience, if that is what's going on, these usually resolve within four or five treatments, and we can book you in for an assessment. So make sure we're checking that thoroughly. But if that is what I think it is, I'm pretty sure it is, then I'd expect a few treatments over the next couple of weeks. Should be able to get that calmed down for you. So it's just letting them know what to expect. And you know what things are going to cost in terms of time and in terms of treatment there. And the other thing he pointed out, especially if you're not going to see them for a little while, is you've got to make it really clear to the patient that these are two separate conditions that you're treating separately. Because what you don't want to do is you don't want to treat it. Even if you've got time and you've done an assessment. You know, that's what it is, is you don't want to treat it and then go, okay, come back in a month, which is when you recommend the next visit for their back at the because one of two things is going to happen if you treat it that day. Your eaves are going to fix it and perform a miracle, which we all know does happen. But now you've set the expectation with a patient that they can bring anything to you, you'll treat it there and then, and it should get better straight away, which is a pretty tough rod for your back you've made. Or what will happen is in all likelihood you won't cure it in just one session. Maybe it'll be a bit better, but often it won't change immediately there and then they'll go, ah, okay, chiropractic doesn't help with that. Yeah, I went to Ulric, but it was a little better. It didn't do much because by saying, okay, we'll treat this a day and then come back in a month, you've told them you shouldn't need any more treatment for a month there. And you basically give the impression that it's either going to get better straight away or it's not. So another thing he pointed out to do is you make sure they book these in separately. So you say, right. So really have a proper look at that to make sure we know exactly what it is. We need to book you in for a review. We could put that in tomorrow, two days later, next week, next week, whatever works for you. And then I can use some more recommendations. But I expect this many treatments over this time is roughly what we're looking at. But let's also book you in next month for your check with your low back as well. So by booking two separate appointments for two separate conditions, you've told them that these are going to be managed and treated differently there. That way they know that when they come in next time, you're not necessarily going to treat all of it in one go and that it's going to take a few extra sessions to get the elbow sorted. Now if they turn around, they don't want to do that, that's fine. But at least they've got the regular check booked in for the low back like you wanted. But in all likelihood they came to you. You've proven to them that with a few treatments you can help them already. So they usually won't mind paying extra and having some more work done on a different condition. So next time somebody brings this up, I'd recommend giving that a go, you know, a quick 20, 30 second impression just to get an idea as to what it is, just to find out if you can help. Or equally, you might say, actually this isn't really the kind of thing we deal with. I'd recommend you go and see X that's still providing value, but just enough to signpost from there. And you'll find they often leave perfectly happy and will probably book in and have a few treatments on that issue as well. As always, any questions, drop me an email. Pop the comments below. Ask Ulrich as well. Make sure to reach out and thank him if this has been helpful, because that's something he passed on to me, and it's been really helpful for myself and my associates and other chiropractors. I've shared as well. And I'll see you guys soon for another video. Take care.