Happy New Year! Have you been working to set some professional and personal goals for yourself for 2014? There is ton of information floating around about this so no need to go down that route except to say that most goal setting techniques, including SMART goals statistically don’t work. In fact, SMART goals are pretty lame in terms of evidence. The better technique just might be writing them down as opposed to creating so much noise around them. “”Passing from lips to pencil tips” has a power of its own.
What about your patients? Are you effective when working to set goals for them during their plan of care? EIM’s latest online course, Called to Care, highlights the evidence that relates to goal setting for patients.
There will always be goals attached to compliance rules and regulations. As positive, caring, and compassionate therapists, or Called to Care therapists, we must ensure that these goals do not interfere with the goals that patients personally set for themselves.
Called to Care therapists let the patients tell their story and help them set goals to reach their “best imagined self.” There are three types of goals relative to patient care:
1. Performance Goals
2. Learning Goals
3. Intrinsic Goals
Performance goals are the ones that we typically focus on in rehab. These goals can be specifically measured. For best results they should be challenging and highly specific.
Learning goals are often ignored, which is ironic because many patients are driven by learning and seek us specifically for this reason. An example of learning goal is setting specific goals for self-care and prevention with our patients. Cornell University does a great job of outlining their learning goals for students. Click here to view.
Intrinsic goals refer to goals set by patients, not anyone else, including family, friends, or their therapy team. The best goals are intrinsic goals because they are set by the patient, for the patient. They produce outcomes that are far more meaningful than performance or learning goals.
When helping patients set goals, it is imperative to understand the Contrasting Effect, which refers to beginning the goal setting process with the ideal future, then contrasting it to the current condition. This creates motivation, optimism, and positivity.
The traditional goal setting model, when you begin the goal setting process with the current condition and then compare it to where the patient wants to be in the future, it is not nearly as effective. It is key to remember to start with a picture of the patient’s ideal future, and then work backwards for greater chances of success. Yesterday, this article on WSJ highlights some of the other benefits of this technique.
Also, when working with patients to set goals, hard goals, not soft or easy ones, are the way to go. Studies show that people who are optimistic about achieving goals, but expect it to be hard to overcome challenges and obstacles along the way, succeed far more often than those who are solely focused on their ideal future.
A study conducted at the University of San Francisco shows that working towards hard goals that are out of one’s comfort zone result in greater authentic self-esteem at the end of the day. Yes, no pain, no gain!
One final part to the idea of “”us”” setting goals for patients. Imagine if I set a goal for you…and then didn’t tell you about it until about 4-6 weeks later? Did you notice that throughout this post there was a common theme. That theme was that all of this goal setting was occurring within the context of conversation with the patient. These conversations are happening at each session and goals revamped as often as necessary. We are not ultimately the one setting the goals for our patients. It is our work to extract the goals that are most important to them and then use our expertise to support them in succeeding.
Called to Care therapists use the evidence behind goal setting to maximize outputs with patients. Are you interested in becoming a more caring, compassionate and positive therapist? Sign up today for the Called to Care course that is a facilitated course- it runs from Jan. 20- Feb. 28, 2014. They special holiday price of $199 won’t last long, so make sure to get your spot today. Click here to sign up.
Let’s keep caring,
@physicaltherapy
@daphnescott
@rwainner
