Hip, Hip, Hooray! Why and How to Celebrate your Patient's Victories

We’ve all been there - a patient who’s less than enthused to be at therapy and you just can’t seem to crack their demeanor towards it. So how do you encourage or push the patient to strive for better and engage with their therapy, because, after all, it is their health? You celebrate their therapy wins.

Why is it important to celebrate these wins for patients? Well, for one, it encourages them to continue on the path to better themselves. Reinforcing and calling out the positives and wins only pushes them to reach for more. Do you have children of your own? Then you know that singing praises only makes them want more. So they’ll do more to receive that praise. Same principle applies here. Tell your patient they did a good job and they’ll continue to seek that “good job”. Who doesn’t want to feel a sense of accomplishment?

Secondly, it helps drive better patient engagement. Being a champion of your patients helps to build a connection and trust, pushing them to continue to work hard for their therapist because they want to make you proud. Cheering them on and letting them know you’re there to support them makes them strive and do better in their treatment. So how do you celebrate their victories and milestones? Try implementing some of these actions:

1. Tell them good job. A simple recognition of their great work can go a long way.
2. Ring the bell. Set up a bell in your clinic and when something is achieved they can ring the bell and the clinic knows they had a victory.
3. Show them. Being able to back up your treatment plan by showing them results is such a powerful and encouraging tool.
4. Create a Wall of Fame. Adding patients to the Wall of Fame in your clinic to brag on their achievements and this can show other patients that hard work pays off too.
5. Tell them how much you appreciate them. Do you have a patient that comes to every appointment and completes their at home work outs? Tell them how you appreciate the dedication.

It doesn’t have to be something huge or involve throwing a party to celebrate a patient’s victory, a simple good job may just do the trick. How do you celebrate patient victories? Share with us in the comments below.