Sometimes evidence based practice isn’t always ‘best’ practice. Sometimes best practice means suspending our evidence for how it ‘should be’ and instead looking through the lens of another human soul and understanding how it ‘could be’.
This poster was pinned to my Nana’s next door neighbours door in her aged care facility. I took this photo because it instantly intrigued me. As an OT, I had alarm bells ringing “falls hazard, falls hazard!!”. BUT, what if a well life looked differently to the client? And in this circumstance, what if an elderly person wanted to keep towels on the floor? Then what?
Do we have the curiosity to find out more? Do we have the heart to listen? Can we harness an empathetic approach where we can validate another’s perspective but still shine a light on the potential issues at hand?
The thing is, we can learn all the evidence until the cows come home, but it’s the art of applying the science in the real, uncontrolled, messy, complicated world that matters most.
And so the question is, can we carefully and curiously navigate client issues and hold opposing tensions simultaneously? x
