Short term memory loss

Hi, hope everyone has been enjoying the break.

This week I assessed a patient in his home following a mechanical fall that resulted in a non displaced fracture of the head of fibula and tibial plateau. From the referral, I noted that the patient had short term memory loss. However throughout the assessment, his memory seemed quite good. During the assessment, I made quite a few recommendations to the patient regarding things he should do to make himself safer in his home and at less of a risk of future falls. He appeared to have taken these on board and was able to verbalize the changes he needed to make at the end of the session. I didn’t think it seemed necessary to write them down, but my supervisor suggested that perhaps it would be a good idea to give him a written copy and so I did. When I got back to the office, I had to ask the OT for a piece of equipment to take to this patient at the next treatment session. She told me that she had already seen the patient twice before in his home and that she had already discussed many of the same changes with him that I had recommended. Yet when I asked him if he had been seen by the OT’s, he had outright said no and showed no signs of having heard the changes before. In reflecting on this situation, I have learned the importance of working in a team with other allied health professionals as well as the importance of giving patients with STML written instructions and if possible involving carers or family to help with the patient’s treatment. I wonder if assessing the patient in his own home helped to mask the STML because he was familiar with the environment. Perhaps the memory loss would have been more apparent if the patient had come into the rehab centre for treatment.

Mel