Patient Care: Developing a Successful Strategy
Evidence Based Investigating
“A strategy, in a world without a crystal ball, should only be judged on the quality of the process that was being utilized to make the decisions being implemented and not solely on the outcome achieved. If you focus solely on the outcome, you will often confuse skill with luck.” – Larry Swedroe.
This was an excerpt from a recent financial podcast I listened to on the White Coat Investor Podcast, titled “Evidence Based Investing”. The theme of the episodes revolves around investing with a sound strategy and not getting overly attached to a good or bad outcome, but rather implementing an appropriate strategy based on your needs, risk tolerance and information/resources at hand.
With Patient Care
This philosophy is no different when we discuss patient care and implementing a plan of action for a given injury or pathology. We will have patients that thrive and do very well for reasons that we played only a little part in. We will also have patients that struggle or do not do as well as anticipated due to circumstances out of our control.
Build an evaluation and treatment system that is based on your values, evidence informed practice, the situational resources at hand and feel confident implementing it. Moving through your career in this manner will pay dividends. Limiting the amount of apprehension and anxiety you take into your clinical decision making and substituting those adverse feelings for ones of confidence and conviction.
Your strategy should be fluid and dynamic and treat it as a living document. As times change, situations evolve and priorities reconfigure, you have the freedom to adjust accordingly. Just make sure the adjustments are based on sound principles and values and not simply an end result.
-Dr. Zach Baker, PT, DPT, SCS . Do you want to chat further? Engage and discuss with Zach on Instagram HERE!
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