Positive attitude linked to worker recovery

Health professionals often agree an improvement in a patient's individual condition is at times heavily dependant on the patient's expectations of their recovery.

 

A patient with a low expectation of recovery will have minimal improvement while a patient with high expectations will improve significantly better.

 

As an allied health professional you play an important role in instigating a positive attitude which can benefit an injured worker's outcome by:

• providing workers with accurate and appropriate information about their injury and its management
• empowering the worker to use the information you provide them to assist with the rehabilitation process
• identifying and clarifying the worker's expectations about the likely outcome from any treatment
• providing reassurance and encouragement to the worker throughout the rehabilitation process.

 

A study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reviewed medical literature on patients' expectations of recovery, health outcomes, and any relationships.

 

The results indicate positive expectations are associated with better health outcomes and there's a need for clinicians to clarify patient expectations.

 

It also highlighted the importance of assisting the patient to have appropriate expectations of recovery throughout rehabilitation.

 

This research reinforces the important role you have in the rehabilitation process as well as the opportunity you have in affecting an injured workers perceptions and communicating with the workers' compensation insurer when the worker may need extra support to return to work.

 

But it's also just as important to find the balance between generating unrealistic expectations and developing a positive attitude within the injured worker to ensure their recovery is optimal.

 

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