Best practice guideline care for musculoskeletal pain recommends treatment that is patient centered, screens for red flags, assess psychosocial factors, use imaging selectively, and monitors patient progress with appropriate outcome measures. Best practice care also encourages self-management advice, education and exercise as first-line treatments and recommends to use of manual therapy only as an adjunct to other treatments. Present literature acknowledges both physical and psychological factors that play an important role in the understanding of pain and related disability. 

You will present an evidence-informed management plan for a patient presenting with an extremity complaint. Information on the case will be provided at the commencement of the semester.

You will answer 4 questions below, providing a brief paragraph answering each of these questions it in relation to the case provided.

1. Please provide a brief summary for the case, i.e., key elements such as basic patient demographics and complaint history. This is not intended to be exhaustive (50 words or less).

2. Please provide your patient with education/information about their condition and management options. Ideally, you should look to incorporate/encourage strategies for self-management and/or inform/reassure patients about the condition or management (e.g., prognosis). (150 words or less)

3. Please highlight key components you would consider for manual therapy or ‘hands on’ care. You should cast your eye on the available literature with respect to the condition you have chosen and include a brief schedule of treatment you would recommend. (150 words or less).

4. Please outline recommendations addressing physical activity, exercise and/or exercise therapy. This may take the form of mobility, stability, stretching, flexibility and strengthening, in addition to more general recommendations for physical activity/exercise (150 words or less).

For your answers, imagine you are ‘talking’ to the patient who is in front of you. How will you deliver the approach to education, manual therapy, and physical activity/exercise? How will you incorporate the literature? Will you consider ‘yellow flags’, mood/emotions (depression and anxiety), psychosocial aspects like fear/kinesiophobia and recovery expectations within your conversation? Please ensure components are placed in a logical and easy to understand manner, as you would prescribe and describe in the clinic. Given the tight word limit, this will be a challenging assignment as you attempt to fit in and elaborate on the key elements or components from the guidelines.

This case report will be approximately 500 +/- 10% words total and submitted during week 9.

Rubric for written assessment:

This practical assessment will include both assessment and treatment components. Specifically, you may be asked to demonstrate motion palpation, and mobilisation or adjustive technique skills pertinent to the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand, and (possibly the) hip regions. This will be conducted at the end of Week 5

There are 3 sections to the practical assessment:

1. Hygiene, professionalism, patient handling, and consent

2. Technique

3. Overall impression

You must pass each section of the examination to obtain an overall pass grade.

This practical assessment will include both assessment and treatment components. Specifically, you may be asked to demonstrate motion palpation and mobilisation or adjustive technique skills pertinent to the hip, knee, ankle and foot regions. This will be conducted in Week 8.

There are 3 sections to the practical examinations:

1. Hygiene, professionalism, patient handling, and consent

2. Technique

3. Overall impression

You must pass each section of the examination to obtain an overall pass grade.

The in-class test will test theoretical knowledge presented across all weeks of this term. It will include a mix of question types to allow you to demonstrate your knowledge. The test will be run through Moodle but will take place on campus in a pre-booked computer lab (room TBA).

This assessment task will assess all unit learning outcomes, which relate to the chiropractic management of extra-spinal abnormalities. It comprises clinical anatomy relevant to extra-spinal articulations, physical examination of extra-spinal joints, determining appropriate differential diagnoses and identifying appropriate therapeutic interventions.