Summarising case to Attending

[MedStudent219]

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Hi, during our visits to the hospital, at the conclusion of the medical history, we thank the patient and then go outside the ward with our group and then the supervising Doctor asks the student who took the history to summarise the case. I've really found this a little difficult and was wondering if there was a way to be concise and yet not just repeat all the things said during the medical history. Preferably any format that allows the important info to be conveyed in a few sentences. Thanks so much!

 

[mvenus929]

It's something you'll learn with time and practice. It's more challenging to do immediately after the interview, compared to a few minutes later when you've had time to synthesize and think about the information given, the diagnosis, and come up with a plan, but overall it will get better with time.

Generally, once you come up with a diagnosis, framing the history around that diagnosis becomes easier... if the chief complaint is abdominal pain, and you decide through your history and exam that the patient has appendicitis, then giving the history tidbits that support that diagnosis in a 3-5 sentence summary is easier.

 

[Poit]

For the HPI, what helped me was thinking of it like I was telling the patients "story". For the rest, it helps to go over it in your head once to gather your thoughts. Otherwise, it can be a bit stress inducing to do it on the fly. I'm still not that great at it and I've been doing it a year.