“How To Doctor Class” Thoughts & Experiences

[Rivka95]

Hello Student Doctors!

What a CUH-razy time to be alive and also a student doctor! It’s most certainly been a trying experience.

Just gauging your thoughts on your “How to Doctor“ Class, where you learn basic clinical skills and performs SP encounters during your first 2 years of med school. Feel free to be honest...but do you feel adequately prepared with your course? At my school, I rarely feel sufficiently prepared (made worse by COVID-19, although that’s no one’s fault.) It just isn’t taken very seriously. Wondering if this lackadaisical approach is seen across the board and we are supposed to be taught more during clinical.

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[DO2015CA]

It is enough to provide you with the basics of how to use your equipment and how an encounter goes. You will not get comfortable with your PE findings until you are laying your stethoscope of 100s of patients in the real world. Baby steps. Memorize how and what questions to ask. Go through the motions to create muscle memory. It all comes with practice

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Think of it as prep for PE. I find talking to real patients is very different than talking to SPs.

 

[acapnial]

Hello Student Doctors!

What a CUH-razy time to be alive and also a student doctor! It’s most certainly been a trying experience.

Just gauging your thoughts on your “How to Doctor“ Class, where you learn basic clinical skills and performs SP encounters during your first 2 years of med school. Feel free to be honest...but do you feel adequately prepared with your course? At my school, I rarely feel sufficiently prepared (made worse by COVID-19, although that’s no one’s fault.) It just isn’t taken very seriously. Wondering if this lackadaisical approach is seen across the board and we are supposed to be taught more during clinical.

It actually would be a little bit worrisome if you felt super confident in your clinical exam skills after poking a few healthy people's abdomens and they pretended something hurt. You'll feel good about your clinical exam after you do it on enough real patients.

 

[Rivka95]

Thank you for all the responses! Definitely makes me feel more at ease.

 

[jurassicpark]

You gotta learn how to crawl before you learn how to walk. The intro classes feel like a joke because they're so structured, formal and not at all how you picture real encounters to go. And odds are they never will be. But the classes are supposed to give you a structure in how you approach your patient encounters so you don't miss anything potentially important. After several hundred patient encounters through MSIII/IV, residency and the first few years of being an attending, you'll get your groove.

 

[Espressso]

It's only for PE prep. That's the priority. You get a groove and a routine with actual patients when you're on third year.

 

[Roxas]

Think of it as prep for PE. I find talking to real patients is very different than talking to SPs.

Real patients won't stfu.

SPs is like pulling teeth to get them to talk.

 

[Neopolymath]

Real patients won't stfu.

SPs is like pulling teeth to get them to talk.

BOTH will totally pull the "you didn't ask specifically about that" **** on you though!

 

[PapaGuava]

Once had an SP that questioned everything I did, even ROS questions. So I'm not sure about the adequate training of all the SPs haha, unless it was just a very 'real-life' scenario.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

BOTH will totally pull the "you didn't ask specifically about that" **** on you though!

Me: "Have you tried any medications for this"

Patient: "Nope"

Me to attending: "they haven't tried any meds for the complaint"

Attending to patient: "Have you tried any Tylenol or Ibuprofen?"

Patient: "YES, I've been taking each 4 times a day for the last month with no relief."

 

[Neopolymath]

Me: "Have you tried any medications for this"

Patient: "Nope"

Me to attending: "they haven't tried any meds for the complaint"

Attending to patient: "Have you tried any Tylenol or Ibuprofen?"

Patient: "YES, I've been taking each 4 times a day for the last month with no relief."

It's so funny because sometimes it is definitely phrasing that causes this issue and can be corrected but usually it's the realization that the person you are interviewing is a total *******.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Me: "Have you tried any medications for this"

Patient: "Nope"

Me to attending: "they haven't tried any meds for the complaint"

Attending to patient: "Have you tried any Tylenol or Ibuprofen?"

Patient: "YES, I've been taking each 4 times a day for the last month with no relief."

A lot of our patients are honestly not very smart people. They get into the habit of taking so many OTCs that you asking them the first time if they're taking an NSAID and naming off 5 of them gets them to remember when the attending asks again after. I had a patient who denied any NSAID use one and then started having signs of minor GI bleeding and then told my attending that they were taking a gram of advil a day.

It's life. Best at times to really just pretend that the patient is telling you half truths. Obviously don't do veterinary medicine and relay on labs and scans, but at times that's really all you can.