Tomorrow is the last day of finals. I survived my oral practicum — I did okay, but I missed a few things that I should have known better on. As a psychotherapist, I should be a genius at collecting a psychosocial history. This is the part of the history where the clinician asks about the other stuff that influences a patient’s health and health care.
I didn’t dig quite deep enough, and ended up missing some important details [NOTE: our class has been requested to not share exam material, so I won't go into the case or what I flubbed]. As a therapist, this was my bread and butter, but as a PA student I was more concerned with doing a good exam and not running out of time. I guess I won’t ever make that mistake again…
There's a lot to keep track of in an oral practicum
My medicine final went fine; in fact, I kind of liked it. It felt like a 2-hour puzzle. They give you clues, you sort through them to decide which are relevant, and try to place the missing piece. Unlike the puzzles my kids do at home, this one made my brain hurt when it was over.
Tomorrow we have our pediatric and behavioral health exams. When they’re complete, we have our white coat ceremony, which is actually planned and hosted by the second-year students. Yikes, I’m nervous! As promised, our next post will be Part II of the origins of the white coat piece. We’ll share our own white coat experiences.
