Hey Reader,
Quick question: have you ever sat down to start your case report, opened up a blank doc, and just… stared at it?
If so, I want you to hear this loud and clear: you're not broken, and you’re not behind. You’re just missing a process.
That’s it. That’s the whole problem.
I’ve coached a lot of oncology PTs through their specialization journey, and here’s what I’ve noticed over and over:
The actual writing usually isn’t the hard part. What trips people up is not knowing what “done” looks like. You’ve got a case report requirement sitting on top of your full caseload, your family, maybe a hobby you haven’t touched in months, and that specialty application looming over your head.
And the case report itself feels like this open-ended thing with no clear finish line.
That ambiguity is what causes the paralysis. Not a lack of skill.
So in this week’s video, I broke the whole thing down into four manageable phases -- the exact pipeline I walk my coaching clients through:
- Foundation: Find the right case (hint: not every interesting case makes a good case report), and do a light literature review to confirm it’s actually novel.
- Drafting: Outline first, then draft out of order. Yes, out of order. I always start with the case presentation, not the introduction -- and I explain exactly why in the video.
- Polish: Get a second set of eyes, and save your abstract, title, and references for last (writing them first is a classic rookie mistake -- you can’t summarize a report you haven’t finished yet).
- Submission: The final administrative push to actually get your case report out the door.
The goal isn’t to write a perfect paper on day one. It’s to build momentum through a defined pipeline, so by the time your deadline hits, you’re submitting -- not scrambling.