Please go on...

So these past couple of weeks we have been learning in Behvioral Science how to talk to patients. We practice role playing with each other and then everybody critiques each other. Its somewhat strange because its new, but I'm happy that we take the time to learn the art of speaking and interacting with patients. We are told to start the medical history with a typical statement such as "What can I do for you today?" or "What brings you here today?" We are then supposed to listen to the patient's story. 85% of a medical diagnosis comes from an adequate medical history. I find that amazing. Another crazy, but not unbelievable fact is that Dr's interrupt the patient in an avg time of 18seconds! So as a medical student we are suppposed to sit there and hear the whole story and when we feel like interrupting, we don't. Then when we feel like we can't take it anymore and we need to speak, we still stay silent. We do this 3x. During this time we say facilitating comments like "please go on", "hmm hmm", "I see". I wonder how often these "rules" are used.

We took the first written exam for this class on Friday. It was detailed with crazy topics like how to be culturally competent Dr. We have to know that Buddhists don't like to be touched on the head, don't offer your left hand to Muslims because its unclean, and that Jewish ppl don't get autopsies. I realized how much I didn't know about other cultures. I missed an A by 1 question, and the correct answer to that question (which I now know) is that 25% of patients that see their family physician leave the appt feeling like they weren't heard and their needs weren't met. I thought it would be higher.

This weekend all I've done is study pharmacology. Drugs, drugs and more drugs. I am running out of mnemonics to remember then by. I don't understand how pharmacists do it. To all my pharamacist friends reading this, I highly respect your work and your ability to remember thousands of 12-15letter words that I can barely pronounce. Say some prayers for the exam on Tuesday.