Exercise has been a part of daily life for John Kim, a Carle family nurse practitioner, from an early age, but he realizes that’s not the case for everyone.
Kim, who started at Carle in 2015, stresses the importance of exercise with all of his patients.
“I talk about exercise consistently to every patient because not only can it treat comorbidities, but it can also prevent future illness and disease,” Kim said. “I believe exercise along with diet is the foundation of health, and so I make it a priority to talk about exercise with each patient.”
He treats exercise like a vital sign, having his certified medical assistant ask all patients if they exercise and how much.
“Asking about exercise as a vital sign has made it extremely easy to bring up the topic of exercise to each patient,” he said.
Kim offers his patients advice about how to get started if they’re new to exercise and offers ways to increase physical activity if they aren’t active enough. He caters each plan to each patient’s individual interests and lifestyle and tries to help them take one small step at a time.
“If I have a patient that is completely sedentary, I will find out what his or her interests are and try to tailor some kind of physical activity from that,” Kim said. “I try to shoot for my patients to start off with a number they know they can do, whether it’s 5 minutes or 20 minutes a day.”
He also has patients fill out exercise logs to help hold them accountable and initially follows up with them every 2 weeks or once a month until exercise becomes more routine.
Through it all, he’s learned that being patient and nonjudgmental is key.
“New habits take time to build,” he said. “So I make sure patients know that I am not here to ridicule them, but to encourage and support them as they try to build the new habit of exercising. I have found that when patients know that their provider genuinely cares about their health, it gets to the point where it motivates the patients to push themselves a little more, and I believe this is why I have many success stories of patients going from a sedentary lifestyle to a more active lifestyle.”
Key Takeaways
- Discuss exercise along with vital signs for every patient.
- Be patient about results, and don’t ridicule.
- Set attainable goals with small steps.
- Follow up frequently until exercise becomes a habit.
- Have patients use exercise logs and bring them to each appointment
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