CLINICAL REFLECTION – 30/11/18

Date Location Total Amount of Hours Overview of Session
30/11/18 Lecture clinic 2 1-hour Thermotherapy and 1-hour cryotherapy

 

Reflective Summary Areas for further Improvement plus action plan
Today I learnt the techniques of cryotherapy and thermotherapy and practiced both techniques on three clients.

 

I noticed both techniques to be very effective, especially for early stages of injury where cryotherapy would be particularly effective for compression to reduce swelling. Thermotherapy is effective in reducing muscle spasms to increase movement.

 

I treated 2 clients with thermotherapy (25 minutes each) and 3 clients with cryotherapy (15 minutes each) as it takes longer for the lamp to heat up some body parts due to it only reaching a small portion of the large muscle groups (hamstrings and quadriceps), therefore the lamp needs to be moved around frequently to target the whole area. I feel I will get quicker at this as I practice but in this session I felt cryotherapy was a lot quicker due to the game ready targeting a much larger area at one time.

 

I feel like I would benefit from practicing these techniques further to develop my ability. Alongside this I will read some journal articles into the effects and potential uses of the two therapies.

Develop my knowledge of the two therapies through practice in the clinic on a variety of clients, as well as reading a selection of journal articles.
Returning to reflections at a later date
Thermotherapy is effective for speeding up the warming of muscle tissue, to reduce the time needed for effleurage. This is beneficial as it allows more treatment time for techniques such as MET or taping.

 

Cryotherapy is useful for the early stages of trauma where it is too painful for the client to receive STM or MET but still requires a treatment to speed up recovery by allowing for lymphatic drainage to decrease inflammation.

 

I will continue to practice these two techniques and explore the benefits of them.

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