SOAP notes and Sunday Fundays

I never wrote about my last simulated patient encounter so I will go ahead and start with that. Thursday (September 10th) I had my 3rd 'clinic' encounter. Its pretty cool to say that considering we have only be in school for 6 or 7 weeks. We again worked on our patient history taking (the S of the SOAP note). S is for Subjective (what the patient tells us as we ask questions) is for Objective (the physical part of the encounter ie Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, etc) A is for assessment (what we think is wrong) and P is for Plan (what we are going to do for them). Soooo, as you can see we have a hell of a long way to go but its ok, one step at a time. We are given 20min with the patient to fill out a patient history (S part) and then after the encounter we were given 7 minutes to fix it/perfect it before we turned it in for grading. We were allowed to bring in a basic rubric for what questions to ask so it wasnt to difficult but being on the spot makes it a lot damn harder. The funny part about simulated patient encounters is that the actors are pretty much the same. I personally dont get the same person every other week but we see them walking around the school and halls during the day so its starting to get harder to 'pretend' that they are real patients. It would be great if I saw one of them out and about in Claremont of Pomona one day. The following Thursday (the 17th...last week) we began practicing the O (objective) of the SOAP note on each other. The hard part is we have to listen to a lecture and then arent given very much time to practice the technique before we are lectured about the next week. Needless to say I still dont know how to take blood pressure without fumbling the cuff or looking stupid. Also, im pretty sure i will never be able to use an ophthalmoscope properly (the thingy that the doctor looks into your eye with). its impossible...there i said it. Back to anatomy...my favorite thing to write about because i could write details about it forever. But i think i will spare some considering we have been dissecting reporductive organs and the pelvic 'area' and i know that my family reads this....and thats just weird. yes, i am going to be a doctor and should be more mature about it but no, thats ok. use your imaginations on these dissections people! Saturday was awesome as i attended a Healthcare conference hosted by the California Medical Association (a division of the American Medical Association). I listened to a couple speakers discuss the methods of healthcare reform and these are some details i wrote down that hopefully will interest you: Sunday was a library day.....my new definition for SUNDAY FUNDAY! Ill write about this week later because I have already procrastinated enough for the evening. Back to the books..i swear....well maybe after checking my facebook another 5 times and chatting on gchat. ;)