Capability 2: planning
This page sets out what behaviours someone with capability two would show and the knowledge and skills needed. The capability is: “Able to develop a rehabilitation plan for a patient, both when the professional is the first to see a patient and when in a team planning meeting, and ensuring that the plan covers all aspects of a patient’s need both from the team and from other services and agencies.” The capability is written as if the professional may plan in isolation. While this will, in practice, not be the usual situation, every rehabilitation expert needs to be able to form an outline plan when they are the first team member seeing the patient. The capability also needs to recognise that most planning occurs at a team level, in meetings. So it includes behaviours, knowledge and skills more focussed on that aspect of planning. A MindMap illustrating key points is shown below and can be downloaded here.
Table of Contents
Context: 'solitary planning'
This capability concerns explicitly the skill of making an initial plan to see what rehabilitation might be possible because the talent is necessary for many settings, and the knowledge and skills required are also essential for all aspects and types of planning. However, the capability also includes participating actively in rehabilitation planning meetings which requires skill also covered in capability three (teamwork).
It is commonly held that decisions on admission to a rehabilitation unit or being taken on by a rehabilitation service should be a team decision for each patient. I am contrasting this against the team discussing and deciding what patients fall within their expertise. Some services enact team decision-making by arranging joint, multi-professional initial assessment clinics or joint visits to see a patient on a ward. These joint assessments are usually restricted to two people.
In any team, members should have some insight into the contributions other team members can make to team care so that, given credible information, a single team member should be able to predict which team professions are needed and, in outline, what they might achieve. This knowledge is also helpful in team meetings because it will often avoid the need for prolonged debate and discussion.
The skill needed to develop an overall rehabilitation plan is also vital for any healthcare professional who offers some aspects of rehabilitation but is not part of a multi-professional team. This situation of rehabilitation professionals working outside a multiprofessional team could be more satisfactory, but, obviously, it occurs, and these professionals need to identify when a fuller team’s input is required.
Context: team planning.
In more complex cases, the eventual formulation of a patient’s problems will depend upon a team meeting, as discussed here. And although the process is separate (see here), formulation meetings usually progress to undertake planning as well. Moreover, one crucial aspect of any plan is for coordinated and complementary actions to be arranged as team members collaborate in working towards a goal. Indeed, meetings to discuss patients and plan actions are a central team activity. All team members need to be able to participate effectively and efficiently.
Team members at a meeting may be required to take on additional roles: chair or leader; organiser of the meeting or a future meeting; a person with responsibility for documentation; and the critical person reporting on the beliefs and wishes of the patient and responsible for feeding back to the patient. An expert needs to be competent in all these roles.
Meetings are very resource-intense, and all those attending must be trained to contribute effectively, adding the particular information or suggestions they have and efficiently, being concise, staying focused, and not repeating anything. While the chair of the meeting should ensure a meeting runs well, every team member present carries some responsibility for the efficiency and effectiveness of the meeting.
Behaviours
This capability covers several important behaviours that characterise good team-working, especially a high awareness of the expertise of all other team members. It also draws on behaviours associated with using the biopsychosocial model of illness, particularly the ability to consider the patient holistically. In planning, there are two aspects to a holistic approach: the first is being aware of all aspects of the current situation; the second is less obvious, and it is appreciating that the patient’s life extends far beyond their brief involvement with the rehabilitation service. The ability to shift attention from a focus on precise details to a focus on comprehensive aspects of a case is an integral part of all rehabilitation but especially applies when planning.
Therefore, the list of behaviours indicative of this capability in practice covers aspects of a professional’s approach to clinical matters, their ability to behave as a team member, and aspects of interpersonal communication.
The first set of behaviours concerns the ability to generate a plan when first seeing a patient, especially when the decision is made that the professional and the team will not be taking further direct responsibility for the patient. Under those circumstances, there is a requirement to provide a plan for the team responsible for the patient so that the patient’s rehabilitation carries on. The behaviours are that the professional:
- provides a rehabilitation plan for the patient, fully documented, that:
- makes explicit the formulation upon which the program is based;
- takes into account the perspectives and expectations of the patient, the referrer, and all other interested parties
- considers the involvement of any other potentially appropriate complementary or alternative services;
- justifies the particular plan outlined and, if necessary, explains why other methods are less satisfactory;
- considers and sets out goals in the long-, medium-, and short-term;
- provides a more detailed plan when the professional and the team are not involved.
The second set of behaviours concerns the capability of participating in team rehabilitation planning meetings. They are that the professional:
- when involved in a rehabilitation planning meeting with others:
- acts as chair (leader) when necessary and always supports the chair when not in that role;
- draws on the expertise of other team members appropriately;
- contributes actively, but also ensures that everyone contributes and helps others to do so if necessary;
- avoids repetition, and curtails repetition by others;
- maintains a focus on the purpose of the meeting and avoids discussion or comments not focused on the goal;
- ensures that the patient’s perspectives, priorities and goals are considered at all times;
- summarises matters when appropriate to check that all understand and agree;
- when disagreeing with an opinion or proposal, is always respectful and, if applicable, uses the opportunity to educate others.
Knowledge and skills
I suspect few professional healthcare workers are taught much about planning. Yet, there is considerable literature about planning complex building projects centred on things like the Gantt chart. While a rehabilitation plan is not on the same scale as building a nuclear reactor or a new high-speed railway, it is complex, with many people with different expertise contributing. There is probably a gap in research about planning in rehabilitation.
Therefore much of the knowledge needed is not readily available, and it will require searching the literature. Fortunately, some of the learning is available. For example, much is written about goal setting (see here). It is interesting and notable that much of this literature arises from management studies. The process of goal setting was transferred from business to healthcare, and healthcare research started long after it started in management. Other areas of knowledge concern publications in other areas, such as law, ethics, and policy documents from other organisations.
The knowledge needed in support of this capability includes knowledge of:
- the evidence relating to and the theories underlying the setting of goals within rehabilitation;
- the specific expertise of all other team members (or their professions);
- relevant legal and ethical guidance, especially relating to patients who lack the mental capacity to participate;
- the priorities, practices, policies and expertise of other services and organisations involved in supporting disabled patients;
- principles of teamwork, team coordination, and project management
- how to act as an effective chair of a meeting.
The specific skills needed to acquire this capability include being able to:
- prepare effectively before the meeting;
- present information clearly and concisely while also distinguishing fact or evidence-based opinion from personal opinion;
- provide evidence clearly, with an explanation if needed
- identify or recognise priorities, justifying them if required,
- understand and accept decisions and conclusions differing from your own, provided they are reasonable and justified;
- lead when needed, and be directed when necessary.
Summary
This capability, summarised here and shown below, covers much that will stand the rehabilitation expert in good stead when involved in management and many other meetings. Much of the knowledge may be found in management literature, and the skills learned from management training courses. Although some rehabilitation professionals consider meetings a waste of time – and a poorly planned and prepared meeting, badly chaired will indeed be a waste of time – successful rehabilitation depends crucially on meetings to reach a proper formulation and to ensure efficient and effective coordination of the team’s activities both internally, and with people from outside the group. Hence this is an important capability.