Understanding Your Injury Shouldn’t Require a Medical Degree
Have you ever left a therapy appointment knowing your diagnosis, but still not really understanding what it meant? Research consistently supports patient education as a key part of the assessment and rehab process. But a good explanation of your injury should leave you with less confusion, not more information.
Why More Information Isn’t Always Better
The trap many clinicians fall into (myself included early in my career) is assuming that more anatomy or physiology information leads to better understanding, and therefore better outcomes. In reality, most patients don’t need a detailed session in anatomy. They need an explanation that helps them understand their situation. This often boils down to: what is going on, how serious is this, how long will it take, and what will it take to get it better? All of that can be answered without a deep dive into biology.
The Real Problem is Clarity, Not Information
We live in a time where information is everywhere. Within seconds you can search your symptoms or ask AI what might be going on. The problem patients face isn't a lack of information—it's that medical information isn't always easy to interpret or apply to your own situation. This can leave patients feeling more confused, uncertain, or stressed, even though they have the information. The key to patient education isn’t providing more information - it’s providing clarity and showing how that information relates to the patient specifically.
Tailoring Education to the Patient
How do you know what explanation someone actually needs? I usually ask my patients during an assessment, “What do you think is going on with your injury?” Not because I’m testing them, but because it gives me valuable information about their level of understanding, and how to best approach them with education. Their answer determines how I respond—if someone gives me a detailed explanation, then I can usually be a little more detailed or use some specific terms. If they really don’t know or can’t quite put a finger on their words, then I take a wider, general approach first.
Throughout the assessment, I’m listening for what they’ve been told by others, what they’ve learned on their own, the beliefs they hold around their injury, what they feel they can and can’t do, what they’ve been doing to get better, what they think needs to be done to get better, and so on… What the patient tells me guides what kind of education I provide. Almost always, patient education leans towards the previously mentioned wants of the patient—what is going on, how serious is this, how long will it take, and what can be done for it.
When Anatomy Actually Matters
That doesn’t mean anatomy and physiology aren’t important. They absolutely have their place, particularly when helping answer the why—“why did this happen?” and “why are we doing this?” The anatomy and physiology is why youth baseball players experience Little League Elbow and not UCL tears leading to Tommy John surgery, and why non-throwing is recommended for 4-6 weeks but other exercises can be performed. But that same explanation can be translated into language that’s much easier for the patient to understand.
The goal of an assessment and patient education isn't to overwhelm you with anatomy or impress you with medical terminology. A good explanation should leave you with less confusion, not more information. You should leave knowing what is likely happening, why it's happening, and what your next step is, in terms that you understand and feel confident moving forwards with.
