After treatment
Agree on what success means
Choose a meaningful goal such as less pain, improved comfort, function, confidence or relationship wellbeing.
Monitor benefit and safety
Record changes, side effects, medicine use and any new physical or emotional concern.
Review with the clinician
Use a clinician-set review point to continue, adjust, stop or add another specialty.
Escalate unexpected symptoms
Contact the treating clinician promptly for significant pain, bleeding, swelling, allergic symptoms, worsening mood or another unexpected reaction.
Follow-up checks benefit, safety and whether the care plan still fits the person's goals.
After treatment
First days — tolerance
The question is whether anything unexpected has happened, not whether it has worked. Side effects and reactions show up here.
First weeks — early signal
The question is whether anything is moving in the intended direction, and whether the plan is practical to follow.
The agreed review — decision
The question is whether the goal set at assessment has been met well enough to continue, adjust, stop or refer.
Longer term — maintenance
The question is whether the benefit is holding, whether monitoring is still needed, and whether anything can be reduced or stopped.
After treatment
- Dates and doses of anything you took, including anything you skipped
- What changed, in the terms you agreed to measure at assessment
- Side effects with the date they began and whether they eased
- Any new symptom, even if it seems unrelated
- Anything that made it clearly better or clearly worse
- Questions as they occur to you, so they are not forgotten at the appointment
After treatment
For anything in that list, contact emergency services or attend an emergency department rather than waiting for a scheduled review or for a reply to a message. If a treatment was involved, bring its name, dose and packaging.
After treatment
Fair trial, no benefit
The agreed number of weeks or attempts has passed with no movement toward the goal.
Benefit outweighed
Side effects are affecting daily life more than the original concern was.
Circumstances changed
A new diagnosis, medicine, pregnancy or life change alters what is appropriate.
No longer needed
The contributor has been treated, and continuing adds risk without adding benefit.