Finally, about my normal life, I was able to go to the gym for over an hour and a half again! Also, invitations for AMC's formal, at Saratoga Springs, were sent out and hopefully we will have a good group of people to go! I'm sure I will write much more about that in time.
So the roughest part of Monday is getting up at 8am after having later classes for the past 2 and a half years...but before classes, I prepared this weekend by doing this week's reading ... and more reading and more reading. I heard that students say that we really don't need to read for every class, but being hyper-paranoid I really wanted to make sure that I was too far ahead before too far behind. Anyway, our first class is physical assessment where we learn how to complete a physical exam on a patient and each week we add to the exam so that at the end of the term we will be able to complete an exam including a full neuro exam. This week we are responsible for basic vital signs, general appearance and integument (skin). Every Friday we have to verbalize what we would be doing in the exam on one of our classmates. For example, during the general appearance and vital signs exam, I would state: "I am assessing for general health, if the patient looks frail, robust, or overall well. I am looking to see if their clothes are appropriate for the weather and if they seem well kept and well groomed. I will then move on to assess for mental state if the patient is alert and oriented. I am looking at the patient's face to see if they are in any distress, comfort/discomfort, pain etc. When I look for the posture I will have patient X stand and walk in a line for me to observe their back and gait. Returning to their seat I am taking their oral temperature and making sure the thermometer is completely under their tongue, during this time I am also observing patient's body odor and breath. This is because I am very close to the patient and can easily note these things." after verbalizing these things to the instructor, I will continue the vital signs and the rest of the skills exam. The reason for verbalizing is to let the instructor in our head while we are thinking to ourselves about the patient. This part of physical assessment is graded on a pass/fail basis be it that we complete at least 80% of the assessment. However, there are a few critical steps in the assessment such as washing your hands before touching the patient. If this is not completed it is an automatic fail and the assessment will need to be re-mediated until you pass. We are given 10 min to show our skills and everything on the sheet of verbalizations needs to be completed before we are finished. Anyway, this was all in preparation for physical assessment. We also had a class called Medical Informatics which prepares us for interpreting statistics, research and medical terminology. Currently, we are not actively doing anything other than defining Medical Terms in this class but I am sure there is much more in store!
Finally, about my normal life, I was able to go to the gym for over an hour and a half again! Also, invitations for AMC's formal, at Saratoga Springs, were sent out and hopefully we will have a good group of people to go! I'm sure I will write much more about that in time.
2 Comments
Denise wallace
1/14/2015 09:28:15 am
Is there a time limit to which you are suppose to wash your hands?
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Lindsey
1/15/2015 02:55:57 am
The time is the happy birthday song twice but we are using hand sanitizer here since the mini exam rooms do not have sinks (because other than hand washing we have no use for them)
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**As many of you can tell, I graduated AMC's program in May of 2017. Current plan is to start a new blog related to my Fellowship after PA school. Stay tuned for the link and updates :)**
Lindsey the
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