Stuck on your ABPTS Oncology case report? You are not alone.
In this Ask Elise Anything episode, we’re diving into YOUR questions about writing your case report for the ABPTS Oncology Specialty Certification application.
From choosing a strong patient case to avoiding perfection paralysis, this episode is packed with practical advice to help you write with confidence—and finish on time.
🚨 Don’t forget: Case Report Writing Workshop is open! Enroll now at TheOncoPT.com/workshop and write a case report you’re proud of—without burning out.
Feeling stuck on which patient case to choose for your ABPTS application?
The Pick Your Perfect Patient Case Masterclass is now available as a standalone mini course — designed to help you confidently select a strong, appropriate patient that sets you up for success on your case report.
Already enrolled in Case Report Writing Workshop?
You already have access — check your course portal inside Circle.
Not in CRWW yet?
You’ll get access to this masterclass and the complete step-by-step framework to write and finish your case report inside the full course.
Enroll now at www.CaseReportWritingWorkshop.com
Ready to tackle the application?
This step-by-step walkthrough shows you exactly how to navigate the ABPTS application portal, avoid common mistakes, and confidently complete your board certification application.
Whether you’re just getting started or stuck in the middle, this video is here to help you save time and reduce stress.
👩⚕️ Inside this video:
- What you need before starting your ABPTS application
- Tips for completing your experience summary and professional development
- What to know before writing your oncology case report
- How to stay organized + meet the deadline
- Common errors PTs make (and how to avoid them)
Watch now: https://youtu.be/ni8DPYo3NYc
The Next Step for Your Case Report
Whether your deadline is July 1 or September 30, the time to finish your case report is now—and you don’t have to do it alone.
If today’s episode helped you feel seen, supported, or slightly less panicked, you are 1000% ready for Case Report Writing Workshop.
It’s our signature course that gives you a no-fluff, step-by-step roadmap to actually finish your case report—on time and without giving up your PTO or your peace of mind.
Enroll now at TheOncoPT.com/workshop and let’s get your case report DONE.
You’ve got this, and I’ve got your back.
Want to watch the episode instead?
Watch this week’s episode of TheOncoPT Podcast on our YouTube channel!
Transcript
@TheOncoPT – Elise (00:19)
Hey Onco PT and welcome back to this episode of the Onco PT podcast. If you are listening to this episode in real time, can you tell this is about to get serious? My voice dropped here. If you are listening to this episode in real time, it is Tuesday, June 24th, which means that the July 1st deadline for the ABPTS oncology specialty certification exam is just around
the corner. Literally, it’s a week from today. Now, what this means is that if you are submitting all of your stuff for this first deadline, you need to get it in ASAP. Okay. Now there may be some of you listening who are submitting for that September 30th deadline later this year. Totally cool. No matter the deadline that you are submitting for this episode is going to be extremely helpful because we are doing an Ask Me Anything Case Report Edition.
podcast episode here where we put out a call on social media. You asked your questions and we are going to do a ⁓ rapid fire answering of those questions here so that you can get all of the final details, the finishing touches on your case report and your application with this information in mind. So that way you can put that application to bed. You can enjoy the rest of your summer and move on. So let’s go ahead and get into some of these really great questions that y’all submitted. So number one,
Do I need to have both my case report finished by the deadline and the application or just the application? And the answer is both, my friend. So the case report is actually part of the requirement of that application. So when you log into the ABPTS portal, you’ll select oncology, you’ll go through and you’ll put in like your basic kind of demographic information, whatever.
And when you get down to it, it’s kind of the last section of your application. That’s where that case report is. So you do have to have the application filled out in its entirety, which does include your entire finished case report that includes all of the text boxes that are there. Now, if you’re wondering, like, what are all of these text boxes that you’re talking about, Elise? I will link, I just updated.
the video tutorial walkthrough I did of the ABPTS Oncology application portal. I will link to that in today’s show notes that you can find that. But know that for every required section of your case report, there is a corresponding text box within the application where you will copy and paste your case report into. So please be aware of that. Again, you need to have something in every single text box.
If you don’t, you are missing very crucial aspects of your case report. So to answer your question, yes, you have to have both application and case report finished. That case report is part of the application. And that does not change depending on the deadline that you are submitting for. No matter if it’s July 1st or if it is September 30th, you have to have your case report completely done as part of your final application, final finished application.
when you hit that submit button. So please be aware of that. Next question. How do I ask a former supervisor, so my previous employer, to approve my experience hours? Fantastic. This is a very common question. as again, part of the application, unless you do the residency path, okay, we’re not gonna talk about that. That’s entirely different. That’s where you submit proof that you have completed an accredited oncology residency.
For the rest of us who did not do an oncology residency, we have to submit proof of direct patient care hours in our specialty, AKA oncology in this case. And how you do it is really, really simple on the application. There’s a separate section within the application where we’ll talk about your experience. And for each of those, you’ll put the information of the institution that you were with, and then you’ll also put your supervisor’s name and email address.
What happens once you submit that information? That is going to generate an auto email to that supervisor. ⁓ And then they can either say, yes, I attest that these hours are correct or I guess no. ⁓ I imagine that there’s a no option if they’re like, no, this person did not do these hours. I’ve never heard of that happening. Mainly because I think most of the people that I’ve worked with previously are very honest, ethical people who did not make up oncology hours. Okay, so.
Anyways, as part of all of this, your supervisor is going to get that automated email. Now, no matter if this is a current employer or a previous employer, I would really, really encourage you that supervisor needs to know in advance they are going to get this email. Do not let it be a surprise for them. And this is all leading up to, if this is a supervisor from a previous place of employment, I would really encourage you to pick up the phone.
and call that supervisor and say, hey, I am submitting my application to sit for the ABPTS oncology specialty certification exam. I need all of my supervisors to attest to the hours that I worked at your institution. There is an automated email from ABPTS that asks you to do so. Please keep an eye on your inbox.
And when you receive this email, please attest to those hours. Please check those hours and attest to those hours. That’s the best way I know how to do it. Steal the script that I just said, you know, make it your own or don’t and use that to speak with your supervisor. Do not let this email be a surprise. We don’t want this email to be lost in like spam or junk folder, or they just straight up don’t look at this email and then don’t do what they’re supposed to do as part of this email.
So I think that’s a great way to, whether that’s a previous employer, whether that is a current employer, to make that connection so they know that that email is coming and to say, hey, I’m going to need you to do this, know, do what you need to do, but please make sure that you do this. So that would be my recommendation. If you are in a very, very, very special set of circumstances where like maybe that’s former supervisor is no longer with the company.
Again, I’m spit-billing here, I’m making things up. ⁓ Maybe that supervisor is ⁓ no longer with us, like maybe deceased, for example. I would think that there are options for you if they are not able to attest to those hours, right? So I’m kind of thinking of a similar situation, not the same, but kind of in the same frame of mind here. When I was a…
college student and I was submitting my observation hours for PT school. One of the places that I actually did my observation hours with ⁓ that super that that person that PT that I supervised with actually moved back to the Philippines from when I finished the observation to when I was submitting my application and I could never get a hold of that person because they literally up and moved to a different country.
Now this was a few years ago, right? Tech has probably changed, but this might be a real life situation for you. In that case, what I would encourage you is to think, are there other people at this institution that I could have attest to that? Is there someone who was like a supervisor above them, for example, right? That like they would have answered to and they could attest those hours. You know, is there someone else within the kind of like
Okay, yes, we can confirm that you worked those hours, maybe not like their supervisor, but there might be some other options so that again, if you cannot for whatever reason get in contact with that former supervisor, there are probably other options there. Now, there is a last option that I’ll bring up here and I would really encourage you, unless it is absolutely the only method by which you can do this, I would save this.
last option, okay? There is an option to self-attest your hours. And this is for people who are self-employed, for example. So when I went ahead and did my maintenance of specialty certification cycle one this past year, I did all of my relevant clinical hours. ⁓
as a, this is after I had opened up my private practice, Fort Worth Cancer Care. And so it’s literally me, there’s no one else. And so I was the only one who could attest to those hours. And so I clicked the self attest because again, I’m self-employed, there’s no one else who can attest to those hours. And then I just made sure to keep records of like, okay, when did I see, you know, generally like patients or I could pull up that documentation. ⁓ It is possible.
that, and this is no matter if you do self attestation or not, ABPTS could always audit your application and they may ask for some more details. You do not, when you are doing your initial certification application, you don’t have to submit any documentation except for what they’re telling you to do. Supervisor name, supervisor email, so that when they send that auto email of, hey, Elise says she worked this number of hours over this period of time, your supervisor can say yes.
I would save the self attestation option unless it is really appropriate for you. You’re self-employed, check. That makes sense, right? Or if we are in a situation, you cannot track down that former supervisor or anybody. Let’s say, for example, your company, your previous company went bankrupt, right? That’s, I mean, that’s a really unfortunate situation, but it’s a totally possible situation.
That might be a set of circumstances in which you might want to self attest your hours. But again, unless self attest is the best option, I would see if there’s not alternates to this just because I imagine, okay, this is me postulating. I don’t know this for certain. I would think the self attest ⁓ feature is something that ABPTS is going to take a closer look at to make sure like, hey, you’re not being…
You’re not being scummy or you’re not being like shady with all of this. So that’s an option. Easiest thing, the short answer that I led with, pick up the phone and call them. I know, I know it’s hard. I know sometimes we really don’t want to make a phone call. It is the easiest way to do that. So that’s what I would recommend. And then there’s other steps for you in case that’s not an option for you. Next question before I get too much down that rabbit hole there. Ooh, this was a great one.
Do I have to follow the ABPTS case report template exactly? Yes. Period.
Genuinely, that is the answer. Now, within the ABPTS candidate guide, the one that was they’ve been operating off of for the past few years and the one that they updated most recently, like in May of 2025, you will find you have to scroll down a few pages through the oncology addendum section. There is a rubric checkbox table thing.
that outlines every single section of the case report you are required to have. That matches the application portal and all of those text boxes that I mentioned previously. It matches it perfectly. That is the template you need to use in order to write your case report to completion. If you…
look at the sample case report that is within the ABPTS candidate guide under the oncology section. Number one, it is a fantastic case report. This was one of the first case reports that was submitted as part of the very, very, very first cohort of oncology specialty certification applicants. It is an outstanding case report and it gives a lot of great inspiration on
what does a case report look like in oncology physical therapy? What are some ways to examine, know, what is the evidence say versus what did we see actually happen in clinical reality? However, if you follow that sample case report and the sections and the headers that that writer used, it is not going to work. It is not going to satisfy the requirements of the 2025
case report as outlined by ABPTS. So look at that case report for inspiration. Do not write your case report in that method. You will have to change things, period. It will not satisfy all the requirements as set forth by ⁓ ABPTS. Please, please, please be aware of this. This might be one of the most important questions on here. I have seen multiple case reports over the years.
that didn’t follow the rubric and instead followed the other example and the writers ended up having to change their case reports dramatically. And I especially don’t want you to get to June 30th, the day before the deadline and realize that, shit, my case report is not even close to being ready despite the fact that I did all this work on it. So please be aware of this. You have to follow the template, those rubric guidelines.
Perfectly, exactly to the T, amen, period, end of story.
Okay, next question is, how do I make sure my patient case is the best for my case report? This is such a common question that I get, and it’s a common question because it’s a really, really good question. I’m going to give you the short answer to this, and then I’m going to give you a direct, here’s where to go to get more information on this specific topic. What I would encourage you to think about when you are
discerning which patient case would be best for you to cover in your case report. I want you to think of this spectrum, okay? So a horse, a zebra, a unicorn. Let’s start with the horse. I think of horses, because I also live in Texas, okay? Now say what you will about Texas. We do have quite a few horses. A horse here in Texas is pretty commonplace. It’s pretty ordinary.
A lot of people have horses. Literally, I see horses in downtown Fort Worth all the time. No joke, okay? Horses are basic, horses are common. And I won’t say horses are boring. It’s just we see horses all the time. Now on the other end of that spectrum is the unicorn, right? The unicorn is mythical. It is exotic. It is rare. ⁓ Maybe imaginary, depending on who you’re talking to.
In a unicorn when it comes to a patient case, if the horse is the same old kind of patient case that I’m seeing day after day after day in my practice, there’s not a lot of variety or I’m seeing very, very similar presentations all the time with my horse population. My unicorn population is something that is so rare, so uncommon, so exotic that maybe…
I don’t even have like literature to support what I’m saying we should do with this patient population. ⁓ Maybe this is something that is so uncommon, only a few people ever really experience or deal with as far as this goes. Now, while that’s cool and that sounds like a really sexy topic to write your case report on, you have to consider that when you’re writing your ABPTS case report, you need to have a really decent or sizable
amount of literature and research available so that you can extrapolate findings and then apply those to your case report, right? Like you need to tie what you did with this patient case to best practice in the literature. And there may not be, let me be clear, there may not be an exact article that says, if I do this intervention in this way over this time period with this patient population that exactly matches my patient case, then you can’t use it. Okay, that’s not what we’re saying.
What we are looking for is in the middle of that spectrum, the zebra. Now zebras here in Texas, not common. I can appreciate zebras are out there. And I do have some zebras in my practice from time to time, right? And so the zebra is unique, but it’s not so far out there that I don’t have literature that I can pull and extrapolate findings from to apply them to.
my case report and why it’s so important. It’s also not so boring and basic that again, same story, different day kind of situation like we see with the horse. So this is kind of the, this is one of the lessons that we go over actually in my masterclass called Pick Your Perfect Patient Masterclass. And I have actually linked that in the show notes here. This is the masterclass because again, this is such a like a good,
question that so many case reporters and case report writers, excuse me, encounter during the process of their writing. It’s kind of the first big hurdle when it comes to writing your case report. Like you can’t write the rest of your case report if you don’t actually have a patient. So that’s one of the really, really ⁓ important reasons why you need to make sure that you have a solid patient case to start writing your case report with and to make sure you’re really certain on this is the right patient for
my case report that is going to demonstrate my specialty practice that is unique, but is not so crazy that I can’t find literature to help support my conclusions from this case report. Now, if you are interested, if you need more guidance on this, I would encourage you register now for that masterclass. I’ve linked that in the show notes that you can find, and that is going to be the best way to really get this process started. So you feel confident you are writing your case report.
to the best of your ability, again, by building that foundation, that solid foundation of this is the best patient case for my case report. Again, that link is in the show notes. And I would really encourage you, if you are not feeling certain about your case report patient, this is where you need to start, my friend. Okay, next question. Do I need to include each therapy session?
or should that be included in the outcomes section? I have a rough timeline that goes from diagnosis to therapy, but I just put PT from start to finish of plan of care. Okay, okay. Okay, so what this person is saying is when I go into the, we’ll kind of take ⁓ a two prong approach to this. We’re gonna talk about the timeline of episode of care and then the follow-up and outcomes section of the case report. These are two separate required.
Sections of your case report, again, that is all outlined in the ABPTS candidate guide, oncology addendum in the rubric section. You have to have a timeline of episode of care. When it comes to your timeline of episode of care, you do not need to include every single patient visit that you had with that person. Unless, I would think, if you are in a situation where you’re seeing this person more short term,
maybe like inpatient, for example, where it’s over a matter of, I don’t know, like days to weeks, very, very short period of time, you could potentially include all of your sessions in there. You don’t need to. And in fact, your timeline of episode of care is a summary. It is a visual representation of the summary of your time with this patient. So timeline of episode of care, you do not need to include every session.
Now let’s transition to a different part of your case report, which is the follow-up, excuse me, and outcome section. The answer is still no. You do not need to include every single session that you had with that person. I would encourage you, what are the highlights? What are the big or important events that happened during your time with this patient that are relevant and important to acknowledge?
and write about in your case report. Again, that doesn’t mean write about every session. Again, you can summarize that information effectively in the follow-up and outcome section without talking about how you saw this person every Tuesday and Thursday for 36 weeks or whatever. Okay? And if you have more specific questions on that, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m happy to answer more specific questions on that.
⁓ okay. Okay. How do I stop editing the same paragraph 500 times and just move on? Great question. One of my favorite things to do when I write is to actually set a timer on my phone. Now, this could be the same for editing also, writing, editing, whatever it is. But when that timer goes off, my time on that paragraph is done.
or that section is done, period. Because otherwise, I’m the kind of person that I will sit and work on one thing until it is perfect and then neglect all the other stuff that I have to do and then all of that other stuff gets crunched, it gets rushed, or sometimes it doesn’t even get done. So I would really encourage you here, set a timer, whatever that looks like, and when that timer is done, move on to a different section.
And I would assign yourself kind of time, like a certain amount of time for the different tasks that you’re trying to do during your writing sessions that day. And you can only return to previous stuff once you have gone through the other list of stuff that you have to do. So be really, really ⁓ firm on those timer deadlines. When that timer goes off, move on and you can only come back to it
once you have finished with all of your other stuff. This is also why we encourage you when you are writing your case report every day, every session that you’re working on your case report, you need to have an agenda. You need to have a plan for what you’re working on and making sure that you are hitting all of those tasks during your writing. And the timer method is a great way to do that.
Okay, next question. I used first person when writing some sections, like in the case rationale and my rationale for choosing testing techniques. Is that okay? Great question. For the rationale for choosing ⁓ testing techniques, I think that’s appropriate. You do have to in ⁓ this case, I’m trying not to use that word because we use it so much.
when writing your case report, you do have to provide justification for why you select your examination techniques, for example, or why you selected interventions, for example. And so it’s okay to write first person, as long as when you’re writing this, it’s not purely from a, chose to do this because I’m a great physical therapist and this is just what I do with patients. I know you are a friend.
but we need more than just because I said so. Case rationale, ⁓ let me actually, I’m actually gonna pull up that candidate guide real quick to make sure that I’m understanding this section that you were talking about.
Make sure we’re on the same page. No pun intended. I’m literally going through the candidate guide right now.
Case rational.
I’m curious if this person is talking about the purpose statement. ⁓
or case reflections? Let me go back to this question. Like in the case rationale and my rationale for choosing testing techniques. So yes, I think there is a place and a method by which you can include first person in the testing techniques. I’m not actually sure what you mean on case rationale. Again, if this is talking about the purpose statement, I…
I would be actually kind of hesitant on including first person in the purpose statement because we want to demonstrate in the purpose statement. Like this is the big why behind why you selected this patient case. And again, this is not a because I’ve never seen this before and it was really unique and I wanted to try out some different stuff with this person. That may be valid friend.
that is not a good purpose statement. That is not good rationale for why you selected this patient case. This is where I would encourage you to actually be much more objective and maybe like third person, I guess, technically. What is the zooming out? What is the reason why this case report is so important for us to read as oncology physical therapists? Like, what am I going to take away from this case report?
that I can then go and implement with my own patients. And there is definitely stuff in your case report that demonstrates exactly this. We need to be abundantly clear when we’re writing our case report on what that is. So I would try to actually stay more objective on the purpose statement section, but where I could see you including more on the, like in first person.
When I got to my discussion section and I was talking about the strengths and limitations, there were several things that I omitted when doing different diagnostic testing with my patient that now I would go back and do. I think the Fullerton Advanced Balance Scale is one of those that like, I wish I would have implemented with this patient, but you live and you learn, right? Now it’s something that is much more commonplace in my practice. Same thing with the, ⁓ shoot.
the six minute walk test. So I chose to defer the six minute walk test in the eval with my case report patient because they were so fatigued and ⁓ actually in so much pain that mobility was a really big issue. And so then I did that test, I think the second time the patient came back. So that was an example where I used first person language, I, to talk about that. So that is another area in which you could do that. But I would try to keep your case report as you’re writing.
as objective and third person as possible. I think that also lends a bit more to the scientific strength and objectivity of your case report as it’s being reviewed, I would imagine.
What’s your best tip for getting unstuck in the middle of writing? Okay, two things. Number one, timer. Again, I know I said that earlier. I’m not going to rehash it. Getting unstuck.
I like to pattern interrupt when I get stuck like this. And what I mean is I remove myself from that particular situation. Maybe physically I can actually get up and like leave the room, go somewhere else. Maybe I can take a break for a little bit. If I can’t do that, then I will say move on to something different. And I know it’s nice to be able to just flow all the way through one section.
and only work on one particular topic, sometimes that’s not what our brains need. Sometimes they need a shift, a change in things. And so that’s why I would encourage you, if you’re getting stuck, move on and do something different. Work on a different section of your writing, get up and do something completely different. Take the dog for a little walk, get some sunshine. Something to just break up the kind of like…
cycle or pattern of, I don’t know, like I think of my brain sometimes is like I get stuck in this loop or in this spiral. And in order to break free of that, I need to just remove myself from that situation. So that’s what I would recommend. I would be curious to know what others have to say on how do they get unstuck when writing. Ooh, I picked my patient a while ago, but now I’m second guessing everything. Is it too late to switch cases? That depends. I know.
typical PT answer. If you are submitting for the June 30th deadline, and again, real time, this is coming out on June 24th, it is too late to change your patient case and still write a case report and submit it for June, excuse me, July 1st deadline, and in order to have a really strong patient case, okay? Now, if you are submitting for the September 30th deadline, you’ve got time. This is a great time to switch.
Right? If you maybe went to, if you watch that master class that I mentioned previously, pick your perfect patient case and you were like, I am way off the mark here. You have time for that September 30th deadline. No problem. If you are submitting for July 1st and are listening to this today on June 24th, this is not a challenge. This is a gentle, but firm reality check. You are not going to write a thorough.
patient case, patient, you know, case report that it has also time to be reviewed thoroughly by your case reviewers if you change for this upcoming deadline.
I would ask you to ask yourself these questions.
Is my desire to change my patient case more than my desire to turn this in for the July 1st episode?
Am I okay submitting for the September 30th deadline by changing my patient case? There’s no right or wrong answer here, genuinely. It is what is going to make you most comfortable? What is also the most realistic? And how are you going to produce the best quality case report that you can be proud of? And that is also going to be submitted at the end of the day. Use those questions as your guidepost as far as determining what do I need to do in this situation?
I hope you feel more confident in your patient case. If not, it’s okay. I hear about this frequently, but know that you likely have to shift your deadline expectations if you’re going to change your patient case right here, right now. And you’re trying to do that July 1st deadline, just FYI.
Okay, last two questions here. What if I made a clinical mistake in the case? Does that disqualify me? Who, who friend? We all make mistakes in our, in our patient cases, period. Clinical mistakes abound. And I don’t say this to in any way say like, ⁓ we’re just human. It’s okay. You know, like it’s okay if we mess up really badly. No, no, no, no, no. Mistakes happen.
And maybe it wasn’t even a mistake. Maybe it was a, learned from the process of reflecting here on what you would change in the future. I think that’s a lesson learned, not so much a mistake. In that case, lesson learned, fantastic. What a great thing to include in your case report if it’s relevant, right? If you made a mistake, let’s take it to the complete other end of the range here.
If you made a mistake that catastrophically endangered your patient, ⁓ that is probably not a good thing. I’m sure there’s an exception to this, but I don’t know that that is the patient case that we need to be including ⁓ as part of your specialty certification case report, right? This case report is all about demonstrating your skills, your knowledge, your expertise, your command of
on copT and making a catastrophic mistake like this does not demonstrate that.
That aside, that’s a pretty dramatic, like very special set of situations over here that I don’t know that I’ve ever encountered when I’ve read someone’s case report. Most of the time it’s going to be along the lines of what I imagine this person is talking about, like, should have done this instead. I should have included this. I didn’t need to actually include this in my case report in my examination of this patient. That’s part of learning. That is part of how we get better as onco-PTs is we reflect.
and we know better and then we do better. For my patient, let me kind of take a little different approach to this. My patient case was by no means perfect. Number one, I had to break up my evaluation into two sessions because that’s what the patient could tolerate.
That was just clinical reality. Number two, like I said, I would have done the Fullerton Advanced Balance Scale, I think that’s what that’s called, on this patient now. And I did not do that previously. And now I know that would have been the perfect test for this patient, but I didn’t do it because I did not know about that then. And I know better now. ⁓ My patient ended up experiencing a deep vein thrombosis in the middle of our plan of care.
that led to an activity hold from his medical team, so we had to defer PT for a little while. That’s real life, that’s clinical reality. What else? My patient experienced another pathological fracture in their lumbar spine. This was not during PT, this was not as a result of PT, it was just kind of the nature of his disease process.
That’s not really a mistake, but that’s definitely an adverse effect that I really would have loved for this patient to not experience. That’s clinical reality. So there’s multiple situations in my case report where like things didn’t go how I wanted them to or how I didn’t plan for them to, but ultimately my patients still made progress. And this was a really meaningful, impactful case report that
there were a lot of really good takeaways that are going to influence oncology rehab as a whole. That’s what’s the most important part of your case report. It’s not about, this a perfect case report where you didn’t make any mistakes? That’s not realistic. So I would challenge you on, is this a mistake or is this a learning opportunity? Is this clinical reality? It may be one, it may be multiple, it may be none of those. So I think if you can determine like what kind of a mistake quote was this,
And then how does this ultimately inform your practice today is going to help you discern is this a good patient case? Is this a good thing to include in my case report? Again, on the other side of things, way out in left field, if your patient was catastrophically endangered, not a good thing. That might disqualify your patient case, I’m just saying. All right, last question here. Can I include parts of my patient’s story?
if it doesn’t directly tie into the plan of care? Great question. I would, I’m gonna push back a little bit here. Here’s why.
We talk about in this question parts of my patient’s story if it doesn’t directly tie into the plan of care.
This is a human that we are working with, right? No surprise to you. Every patient that we encounter is a human with very human elements. Yes, they have been diagnosed with cancer. They are going through cancer treatment. That’s not all of them.
They have a family, they have friends, they have things they like to do. Maybe they have a job, maybe they have a ⁓ pet as I’m looking at my dog Ted sleeping upside down in the corner over here, right? Like there’s multiple aspects. There’s so many layers to being a human being. I would really challenge you here.
I bet this person’s story relates or does somehow directly tie into the plan of care. Now, if you are talking about this person loves blue and white polka dotted socks, and that has no ramification, no relationship whatsoever to what you did with this patient or why they were working through ⁓ different interventions to ultimately achieve whatever goals.
is not relevant to your case report that yeah, please don’t talk about the person’s love of blue and white polka dot socks. Okay. But
There’s a lot of other stuff that definitely relates to the plan of care. So for example, one of the things in my case report, during my time with my patient, his child had their first grandbaby. And so it was really important for my patient to be able to tolerate a multi-hour car ride to go and visit this new grandbaby.
And so part of what we worked on in PT was activity tolerance and working on pain to an extent, because part of this person’s pain was specifically like cancer related. And I can only do so much about cancer pain, for example. But the things we were working on in PT directly or maybe indirectly enabled this person to tolerate sitting in the car for longer so that they could actually go and see their first grandchild. That
Part of the patient’s story is extremely relevant to the plan of care. ⁓ Another one, this is like an adjacent thing. So in cancer basics course, ⁓ my co-instructor, Dr. Kelly Sturm, who you probably know on the podcast, she has a patient anecdote in there that we talk about. She would have seen this patient, this patient had ⁓ CIPN and was really dealing with some issues and this person,
was going to go on vacation at some point during their plan of care. And when this person came back from the vacation, their neuropathy was better because they actually spent every day walking on the beach barefoot in the sand. And whatever it was about walking barefoot in the sand on vacation, I think in Mexico, which like, what a great place to walk on the beach barefoot on vacation.
was helpful for this person. And that was pertinent to include for us because again, that really ties in the human element behind everything of what we do. So I give you some of these examples of, I would really challenge you here. I want you to rethink, directly tie into the plan of care again. You are curating a plan of care with interventions because of the impairments that you identified during your examination because you are a skilled oncopetite.
you are able to sift through all of the stuff that your patients are dealing with to ultimately determine what is happening with them, what is going to help them, but you don’t stop there because you know that if we’re going to make this plan work between you and your patient and their lives, we have to consider how is this going to affect the things that they want to do or that they need to do with the people they love.
That’s that human aspect that we need to bring into Oncopiti. Again, walking on the beach barefoot with her significant other was very important for Kelly’s patient. Sitting in the car to go visit their brand new, very, very first grandbaby was of the utmost importance to my patient. Was that something that I necessarily wrote into my goals for that patient? No. Is it really relevant and is it part of that human aspect of care?
and ultimately why we’re doing what we’re doing, yes. So again, to the person asking this question and others who are asking this question in their mind, sit with that. This, can I include parts of my patient’s story if it doesn’t directly tie into the plan of care? I bet it does. I bet there are things that do, again, the polka dot socks, probably not so much. Grandbabies walking on the beach with significant others.
insert other thing that your patient likes to do here, that’s a relevant outcome to your plan of care, even if it’s not directly like, ⁓ patient will do this, know, those ABCDEYTF goals that we write. So all this to say, great questions. If you have more questions, I would encourage you reach out to me on Instagram, send me a DM. I’m happy to answer other questions that you have for your case report.
I know we’re coming down to crunch time. If you’re working toward that July 1st deadline, we’ve got a little more time for that September 30th deadline, but know that I am here in your corner and I am cheering you on every step of the way, my friend.
If you still feel stuck though, if you need a little more help, if you need that kick in the pants to really get things moving and grooving, Case Report Writing Workshop, which is my signature program, was made for this exact purpose. Case Report Writing Workshop walks you step by step through writing a case report that you are proud to submit.
without spiraling into burnout or straight up just not submitting your case report. You have a case report in you. You have one in your brain. It’s time to get it out of your brain and onto paper so that we can learn from this and so that you can continue your path to becoming the best version of Onco PT that you can be.
To sign up for Case Report Writing Workshop, we cannot wait to see you inside. You can head over to the oncopt.com slash case report and we will get you enrolled in there. Again, if you need that extra little help, that extra little push, this is what Case Report Writing Workshop was designed exactly for my friend. And I cannot wait to see you in there. Until next time, this is Elise with the Onco PT. And remember, you, yes you.
are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.