5 bonus tips to a great

Subjective Assessment
David Pope

www.clinicaledge.com.au 


5 KEYS TO A GREAT SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT -DAVID POPE 1

 Subjective Assessment
Thanks for downloading this PDF with bonus tips on subjective assessment. These tips
complement the tips found at www.physioedge.com.au/subjective. I hope you find these helpful,
and help you to get more out of your subjective assessment!

1. Take detailed clinical notes on every session including warnings given, treatment
provided, and explanations. Apart from being a medico-legal requirement, they are very useful
for reflection on successes and failures.
2. Always ask if your patient has any P&N or Numbness, and followup with a neurological
examination
3. Aim to make a provisional diagnosis and differential diagnoses from your subjective
assessment PRIOR to performing your objective examination. You can then plan what you wish to
test/exclude before you move onto the objective examination
4. Follow up answers with further questions. Eg if your patient reports they have pain on
stairs, find out if it is walking upstairs, downstairs, worse on bigger stairs, worse when the knee is
more bent or straight. Increased pain with larger stairs and with increased knee flexion combined
with pain around or under the patella may lead you towards diagnosing PFJ pain. Anterior knee
pain closer to knee extension rather than with increased knee flexion may be more indicative of fat
pad impingement. The more detailed followup questions will help you make your provisional
diagnosis.
5. Ask your patients about their weekly physical activity and any sporting interests eg they
like to run 3x/week and surf. This will help identify potential areas of load, and help you set goals
at each treatment session to keep your patient motivated to continue their rehabilitation/
treatment plan.
6. (Bonus point) Verbally summarise for your patient the key points you extracted from their
history - pain location, when it started, aggravating activities and other relevant information. Your
patient will feel listened to, and assured you have taken in the key points, and build trust with
you as their therapist. This often jogs their memory and helps them to remember further relevant
information.

What have you found are the keys to your success with the subjective assessment? Please let
me know your keys to a great subjective at www.physioedge.com.au/subjective

Have a great week!

Kind regards
David Pope
Clinical Edge

5 KEYS TO A GREAT SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT -DAVID POPE 2