For the first time, we have experienced practicing our skills on a "real patient." Normally, we practice the skills for physical assessment on one another, however, it would be a little strange to practice a breast exam on one another, so we are fortunate enough to practice on someone else.
This skills day was like no other. Our instructor, Deb, arranged a whole round-robin type of event where we would practice various parts of the skills sheet in different rooms, ranging from a male breast exam to the female "real patient" exam. The patient was so friendly and very encouraging during our practice. She let us know if our pressure was good and what she liked and didn't like about our presentation. Usually, we just practice going through a physical exam with out partners and then one person gets tested. This week, we all have to perform this exam and we are all getting reviewed.
Below is the "skill sheet" that we are following.
Each week, we have a different one of these sheets and we are responsible for learning this entire sheet before Friday (and ready to perform it within a 10 min time frame).
As you can see on the right there are two columns, one for performance and one for verbalization. Performance is self explanatory where we have to perform that step. Verbalization requires us to literally recite the information in that line. This is because the instructors are not "in our minds" and do not know if we are actually looking for color, thickening or enlarged pores if we are just inspecting the breast...so the only way they know that we know what we are looking for is if we verbalize it.
The "C" in the performance column: critical step, if you forget it or do it wrong you instantly fail.
The "S" in the performance column: this is a special test that is only performed if indicated by the instructor
the reason for the special test is to see if we can tailor the exam for the patient in front of us and show a wider range of skills and knowledge
Hopefully this gives some readers a better idea about what our "Physical Assessment" class consists of.
I plan on posting more of the skill sheet documents, especially the neurological exam.
This skills day was like no other. Our instructor, Deb, arranged a whole round-robin type of event where we would practice various parts of the skills sheet in different rooms, ranging from a male breast exam to the female "real patient" exam. The patient was so friendly and very encouraging during our practice. She let us know if our pressure was good and what she liked and didn't like about our presentation. Usually, we just practice going through a physical exam with out partners and then one person gets tested. This week, we all have to perform this exam and we are all getting reviewed.
Below is the "skill sheet" that we are following.
Each week, we have a different one of these sheets and we are responsible for learning this entire sheet before Friday (and ready to perform it within a 10 min time frame).
As you can see on the right there are two columns, one for performance and one for verbalization. Performance is self explanatory where we have to perform that step. Verbalization requires us to literally recite the information in that line. This is because the instructors are not "in our minds" and do not know if we are actually looking for color, thickening or enlarged pores if we are just inspecting the breast...so the only way they know that we know what we are looking for is if we verbalize it.
The "C" in the performance column: critical step, if you forget it or do it wrong you instantly fail.
The "S" in the performance column: this is a special test that is only performed if indicated by the instructor
the reason for the special test is to see if we can tailor the exam for the patient in front of us and show a wider range of skills and knowledge
Hopefully this gives some readers a better idea about what our "Physical Assessment" class consists of.
I plan on posting more of the skill sheet documents, especially the neurological exam.