Reflection Essential Chiropractic: 16/9/2020

Reflection: 16/9/2020                   Hours: 5

What happened:

 Today I had 4 patients in clinic, all were complaining of tightness in their neck and shoulders from poor posture at work.

What I was thinking and feeling and what was good or bad:

I find it very interesting, the number of patients who present in clinic with postural related neck pain and tightness and today really highlighted that to me. Following treatment, in my gap, I decided to create a guide for them to take home with tips on how to prevent and manage postural related pain.

I included tips such as:

  • Regularly move around, avoid sitting in one position for longer than 45 minutes.
  • When on the phone, try to walk around.
  • Regularly roll your shoulders back and forwards and perform neck circles to prevent stiffening of these joints which builds up overtime.
  • Raise the height of your screen to prevent you looking up or down – aim to keep your screen at a height that allows your head to stay in a neutral position.
  • Raise your keyboard so that your wrist stays in a neutral position and isn’t straining.
  • Sit in an upright chair which has a back support and preferably head support, avoid sitting on the sofa or in bed to work.
  • Always get your daily exercise (150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week or 75 minutes of high intensity activity a week).

As well as neck stretches to try to manage the build-up of tightness in the upper fibres of trapezius, Levator scapulae and rhomboids.

What else I could have done/areas for improvement:

  • Monitor their quality of life, sleep, exercise and work breaks using a diary.
  • Consider treatments other than just massage and stretching for these patients.

 Action plan:

Continue to make resources like this for my own use as prompts or revision tools and also to help patients manage their own symptoms and manage expectation, to make them aware that they can take control of their own pain.

 References:

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/

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