Wednesday 24 February 2010

Technique - Knee and Ankle

13/11/09 - Kiera Kinch Tutorial - Knee Examination

It wasn't until Keira Kinch gave us a tutorial that I really appreciated how observation is the first key step to assessment. When a fellow student was asked to perform a knee examination to the rest of the tutorial group. She did as I would ... stand the patient up and look at their knees etc and then get them straight onto the table to perform a passive examination.

When the tutor repeated the examination she look at the patient in greater detail and got the patient to do active movements. She asked the patient to engage their quads whilst standing to see how the patella tracks and she asked the patient to do squats to see how the different muscle groups engaged.

24/02/10 - Knee examinations were okay, could not explain which bursae were for which conditions need to revise those.

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Technique - Hip

17/02/10 - Good examination, think of more ways to ttt than supine.

15/04/10 - Treated my first OA Hip patient today in the Royal Free Hospital. His presentation was exactly as it says in the text books. I really struggled to treat him has his limb was so heavy ... I understand now why it is so important to make techniques effective and easy to perform else there is no way the osteopath will have longevity in the profession.

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Technique - OA Joints

25/11/09 - During a technique tutorial in clinic today I was shown another approach to manipulating the OA. The technique is basically the same as we are shown in technique class but with full rotation, then you take off half, then you put on full side-bending, test your levers, add on side bending and shift if required and then thrusts. Ive tried it a few time now when practising, but Im not sure its C1-2 that's cavitating.

10/02/10 - After practising technique with Nandeep it was apparent that occasionally we loose the rotation when side bending is put on.

11/04/10 - Today I had a patient that I needed to thrust their OA joint. I don't know why but the thought of doing this panicked me as I haven't had the opportunity to practise my thrust as the students that I practice technique with don't want to practice OA thrusts hence I didn't feel confident. The tutor thrust the patients OA for me. He used a different technique which was a combination of a cradle and a chin hold. The technique worked for him. It heiglightened to me how techniques can be adapted to suit the individual practitioner as long as good anatomical knowledge and a clear idea of what your trying to achieve is used.

Friday 5 February 2010

CPR Training

Well as an ITU Nurse with a certificate in Advanced Life Support (ALS) this is something I would have done well in if it was examined.