Any good tips for palpatation??

[1FutureDPT]

Hey everybody,

I feel like I could use some help with my palpatation skills. Any tips/hints that have worked well for you would be great. Thanks!!

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[markelmarcel]

I honestly didn't know what I was doing, but it just seems that youd o whatever feels best for you; it also helps to have a partner that can tell you, "Hey you are pressing too hard" or "try to press harder". I was having a hard time finding the cuneiform bones in the foot through all the tendons and my partner outright said, hey if you press harder, I think it will help and it did!

 

[DancerFutureDPT]

Practice on a variety of people...I practiced on one of the skinniest girls in the class because a lot of the bony landmarks and tendons were really easy to find on her. Then I was able to transfer that to people of other sizes. I also practiced some things on myself (things like feet, hand, etc, that are easily accessibly. It'd be hard to try to find your own thoracic spine landmarks haha). At least when you're finding it on yourself you have two ways of feedback since you can feel how hard you're pressing, and since some points are tender you can tell if you're on it.

 

[ptootles]

As the others mentioned, it's a matter of practice and doing it on varying body types. Something that is easy to find on a relatively thin person may be much more difficult on a person with more weight or muscle definition. Also, something I found, is that it's easy to subconsciously press too hard when trying to find a landmark and that can desensitize your fingers to the point that you cannot feel what you're looking for. Backing off a little on the pressure sometimes helps as well as pressing harder (which markelmarcel mentioned) in some situations.