As a vestibular physical therapist, I treat patients presenting with various types of dizziness. I love assessing patients and figuring out what is going on…BPPV? Cervicogenic dizziness? Vestibular neuritis? Migraines? Stroke? Orthostasis? OTHER? Putting the puzzle together is rewarding but presenting it in a way that the patient can understand is a challenge. To learn more about my vestibular ventures and how this project came about, you can click on: Developing a Capstone Project
I took the Advanced Geriatrics course last spring and for an assignment, we explored one body system and its changes with aging. I picked the inner ear and discovered some cool stuff. If you want to learn more about what is happening to your ear as you age, you can check out: Aging and the Vestibular System *Since I wrote this paper last spring, I further investigated evidence addressing post-repositioning exercises for BPPV and discovered that there is no evidence to support any exercise to prevent recurrence of BPPV. I no longer issue Brandt-Daroff exercises to my patients*
In order to better educate my patients about dizziness, I created Ask Me 3 patient education handouts for BPPV and orthostatic hypotension. They have been approved and formatted by my company’s healthcare literacy team and I am putting them to full use! Ask Me 3 BPPV & Ask Me 3 Orthostatic Hypotension
My patients want to know why I can’t look into their ear and see the “ear rocks.” Since my company’s format does not allow imported photos, this is what I show my patients: Images for Patients about BPPV
I created two forms to assess patient understanding of and recommendations for my handouts: Patient Understanding BPPV & Patient Understanding Orthostatic Hypotension
What did I learn and what did my patients learn? In order to put it all together, I created this summary about my Capstone process: Health Literacy Integration & Patient Assessment
If you want to learn a little more about my tDPT experience and what I would like to do in the future, you can check out this link: To Infinity and Beyond! Where I Go From Here
Thank you to my Capstone committee members: Karen McCulloch, Ann Sumner & Tom Bauer!
11 Responses to “Why am I dizzy? What can I do about it? Why is it important?: Development of patient education handouts using the Ask Me 3 model”
eicher
Miranda,
Great job on your capstone project. The educational handouts you created are very straight forward and address pertinent questions that most patients may be thinking and forget to ask! I also have a strong interest in vestibular physical therapy and have loved experiencing this side of therapy during 1 of my clinical rotations. I think these handouts would have been so helpful for our patient care. We would explain the anatomy to them and show them how and where the crystals may have dislodged causing the BPPV. By the time patients came back for a second visit they had many more questions, and a handout of this nature would have been perfect for them!
Cari
mlbunge
This is to address Lindsey’s comment…do read the “Aging and the Vestibular System” paper but since that time, I found out there is no evidence to support the Brandt-Daroff exercises…I will make a brief note on my project site near the paper. Miranda
Susan Reeves
Great Job Miranda. I really enjoyed the Ask Me 3 patient hand-outs. I often forget how new information can be overwhelming to even the most educated patients. The focus on encouraging patients to ask questions is great. I loved reading “To Infinity and Beyond”. Thank you for sharing your story. Congratulations and I look forward to seeing you at graduation!! Susan
llashley
Miranda,
Great project! I really enjoyed your paper on Aging and the Vestibular System. I’ve often wondered the best way to adapt the standard Dix-Hallpike for the elderly, and you provided great ways to adapt vestibular care for these patients. I also really enjoyed the Ask me 3 handouts that you shared. It’s amazing how three simple questions could provide such a thorough way to asses a patient’s understanding of what’s going one. Great work!
-Lindsey
Lisa Brennan
Excellent work, Miranda! These sheets are great, I have no background in physical therapy but feel educated now. I like the personal feel your papers and website have too, I can feel your personality shine through. It’s amazing to see all that you’ve been working on these past few years yet you’ve still remained such an upbeat positive patient advocate and therapist here at FMC!
mlbunge
Thank you for checking it out, Tiffany!
Tiffany Shubert
Great job!! I really enjoyed all aspects of the program
mlbunge
Carla, thank you for your comment! It really is great to have the information at your fingertips to give patients. We have handouts about all sorts of things, including outpatient sheets with information about topics like osteoporosis and different orthopedic conditions. The greatest challenge and benefit is having a set format to create the handout…I had lots of help through our patient education committee but the information had to fit that format (which would not allow me to use photos for BPPV, which is a big loss for that handout) Miranda
chhill
Miranda,
Awesome job! The handouts you’ve made are great for giving the patients the information they need about common causes of dizziness without being overloaded or confusing. I could use a whole library of these helpful handouts to give to patients and family members to remember what we talked about in the clinic. Just curious, what would you say was the greatest challenge in making the handouts ready for distribution?
Carla
mlbunge
Karen, thank you so much! What an encouragement! I have really enjoyed connecting my tDPT education and clinical experience. I am really glad it shows in the post! The little baby in the photo is one that I met in a free medical clinic I participated in in Monterrey, Mexico…I love using my Spanish and giving medical care!
mcculloc
This looks great, Miranda. You’ve done such a nice job of connecting many dots in your program to these final products – and what a superlative example of what we hope the program will accomplish. Yay you for getting to this point. I am curious about the picture of you with the little one – who is that cutie? Congratulations for putting this together and I like the format that “tells the story” of what you’ve posted here 🙂
kmac