Today was my first Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) practice day. There's this section of the school that was built to look like doctors' offices, and my class is split into groups of 20 or so who go on a specified day to practice our skills ... or lack thereof.
Today I got paired with a very beautiful and nice girl named Megan. One of the best attributes a doctor can have is a warm, heartfelt smile, and she has an award-winning one. In my opinion, this is very important because often a patient has no relationship with his or her doctor, but is supposed to open up and share what's wrong. A warm smile can help bridge that unfamiliarity gap quickly, which will allow the patient to be more expressive and help the doctor make a quicker, more accurate diagnosis.
Our patient was a girl named Jenny. A good looking nursing student who runs a lot. This was wonderful because we walked in and didn't know what to do. Well, Megan was on the ball, but I was a fool. I knew what to do, but not how to do it ... and that's ok. That's what the practice session is for. Jenny helped walk us through how to feel radial, brachial, and ulnar pulses, take blood pressure, and count respiratory rates.
The first time I did it, I got a good bp, something like 110/70 (ish) and thought I was doing good (except I wasn't sure if I was hearing the right stuff). The second time I got something like 100/60 and thought that was low, but Jenny just laughed and said it's high, because she's a runner.
So all y'all watch out!! I'll overestimate your blood pressure!!
Let's just wait for next time--it's heart and lung stuff.
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