OMT Foundations:

Foundations of Orthopedic Manual Therapy Clinical Reasoning

The Foundations course is designed to introduce participants to the clinical reasoning model that underpins all of our courses.

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Course Description

This class is intended to develop a thinking process that can be applied to virtually every patient. The goal is to lay a foundation for the participant to be a skillful user of the clinical reasoning model conceived by Geoffrey Maitland in the assessment and treatment of patients in orthopedic manual therapy. The intent is to apply hypothetical-deductive-inductive reasoning to patient assessment that liberates the therapist to create change in the behavior of physical dysfunction as a priority over diagnostic categorization.  

There are foundational concepts that when applied appropriately & consistently can literally guide the thinking process for making decisions about what we can do with patients who arrive with common clinical presentations and novel circumstances.  These foundational concepts will be the primary focus of the class.

These concepts are the foundation for the clinical reasoning which is applied in all the regional classes. All students are required to have a working knowledge of these concepts prior to taking any of the regional classes. The course is designed to give a command of these foundational concepts to allow the regional classes to maximize student gain during in session coursework. It is effectively the language that we will use in in all clinical course work discussion.

It is offered on line to eliminate any barrier for the student who wishes to engage in regional course work without waiting to take the class until it becomes available again. You will be guided through all content required for the regional classes in 10-12 section blocks to be done at your leisure.

Once engaged in the regional courses there will be no rigid adherence to “Australian technique”. The instructor has an extensive background in a breadth of technique including Kaltenborn-Evejenth,, Mechanical Diagnosis & Therapy, Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation, and many others including the reliance on integrating background knowledge with what we see in front of us and innovating the appropriate technique/response. There is a strong bias to patient participation to allow patients to reach independence from the healthcare system.

*The Foundational Concepts*

 Subjective examination:

as the cornerstone in determining the structure of the objective exam.

Patient presentation:

severity, irritability, nature, stage and stability of  the problem(s) will be stratified in a methodology to design the objective exam specifically for the patient at hand.

Hypotheses generation: 

The recognition of all possible and the most probable problems that are impairing the current patient.

The working hypothesis:

Establishment of the most likely problem for the patient and the pathway to honestly determine its’ veracity.

Comparable findings:

functional, subjective, and objective parameters that will assess the value of our chosen intervention(s).

Trial treatment: 

The testing of our working hypothesis with the intervention that gives the greatest likelihood of immediate change in the patient presentation.

Reassessment: 

The immediate comparison of the pre treatment & post treatment status of the comparable findings to establish the value of the treatment.

Planning Progression:

Establishment of a plan based upon established results for progression of treatment including advancement to patient independence.

Course Objectives 

 This class is willfully designed to be efficient with your time as well as effective with developing your mental skill set.   This will ideally allow all of the regional classes to begin from a common baseline for all applications in class, in the clinic and discussions in classes.

The concepts will be developed in a real patient environment actual cases either on film or live in class. This methodology allows demonstration and clarity for genuine application in your clinical setting.

 Specific Goals:

1.     Develop a conceptual framework for clinical reasoning in OMT.

2.     Demonstrate the foundational concepts of clinical reasoning in OMT.

3.     Discuss the genuinely common clinical syndromes, the rapid recognition of them and the variations that drive examination & treatment choices.

4.     Integration of the foundational principles with real patients.

5.     Develop proficiency with the recognition of common clinical syndromes.

6.     Develop knowledge of how to proceed with the unrecognized presentation pattern.

7.     Understand the decision process for determining how the exam can determine the type of treatment, the volume of treatment & the magnitude.

8.     Nurture continued development of skills with accurate and informative feedback from the ‘patient’ therapists with each session.  

CEUs: 15 Hours for in-person; 10 Hours for On-line only version

• Clinical Reasoning Foundations

 Registration:

To sign up for this class, please email phoenixmanualtherapy@gmail.com