Page 201 - ASOP ROT Study Guide

10. COMMUNICATING WITH PATIENTS
Cast room staff must appreciate that having a cast is a novel experience for most people and
having it put on and taken off can be most intimidating, especially for the young and the frail. A
careful explanation of what is to be done, and reassurance that care will be taken, is essential. The
hazards of having a cast are known to you but may not be obvious to the patients and so a verbal
and written checklist of things to look out for should be discussed with the patients. One good way of
ensuring the patient knows about the risks is to stick a warning list on the cast!

11. WALKING AIDS
For most purposes in the plaster room three types of aid are in common use:
♦ Walking stick
♦ Crutches
♦ Frames

11.1 Sticks
A walking stick is used, on the opposite side to an injured limb, to off-load the limb in order to
help an injured person to walk (see Figure 13). During weight bearing, loading on a limb is in part
caused by the weight of the body and in part by muscle contractions across the joints. When
muscles contract to make a joint move then the same force pulls bom sides of a joint together.
By using a stick, it is possible to take some of the weight of the body and also to reduce the
need for the muscles to contract so strongly - so further off-loading the limb.
In the hip, to clear the non-weight bearing leg from the ground, the abductors of the weight
bearing hip contract, tilting the pelvis up. This causes high loading of the weight bearing hip.
Use of a stick on the opposite side will, in part, take some of the load of the body through the
arm bypassing the weight bearing limb. It will also help to tilt the pelvis, reducing the need for
the abductors to work so hard. Thus the hip is off-loaded in two ways

www.allgoodideas.co.uk

FIGURE . DIAGRAM TO SHOW THE USE OF A WALKING CANE.

An individual must be provided with a stick which is long enough to bear weight comfortably with the arm
fairly straight, but not so long that it gets in the way.