Improving Rehabilitation Effectiveness by Enhancing the Creative Process

J Athl Train. 1995 September; 30(3): 261–264.

PMCID: PMC1317873

William A. Pitney, MS, ATC

William A. Pitney is Instructor at Department of Physical Education, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115.

Edwin E. Bunton, MS, ATC, CSCS

Edwin E. Bunton is Clinical Athletic Trainer at American Rehabilitation Network, Southgate, Michigan.

Abstract

Creativity is a tacit component of a rehabilitation program that must be exercised by a clinician to avoid stagnation of rehabilitative innovation. Enhancing creativity can improve rehabilitation effectiveness but requires a conscious effort on the part of a clinician. There are many components to encouraging the creative process, but few authors have grouped them into a single step-by-step process. The authors of this paper have developed the CLEAR method to enhancing creativity. This method represents a summation of various strategies offered in the literature and comprises five steps: 1) challenging old routines, 2) learning new attitudes, 3) enlisting idea-generation exercises, 4) assessing the new idea for safety, and 5) revising the idea so that it is safe and suitable for rehabilitation.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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