Today, the coalition opposition indicated support for the "Scrap the cap" campaign. They have yet to announce their full policy decision, but it seems unlikely that they would do nothing in their policies after they have put their words of support for this campaign. Now it would be good if Labor did the same and reversed their policy of the cap.
For more commentary, see the articles from Medical Observer, #Scrapthecap, or Australian Doctor.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
[update] Surgery rotation, theater time
As you may know from reading my blog, this term is my surgery rotation. While the basic skills of history taking, examination and investigations have much in common with the medicine term, surgery not surprisingly does have a different flavor to it.
I have recently been in theater to witness some of a surgery. It is quite an interesting experience to go into the operating theater and see the whole team of surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses working together to ensure the successful operation. This was a very long operation - double mastectomy and full reconstruction. This was going to go for 10 hours, and I only saw the first two hours before I had a tutorial to attend.
I have recently been in theater to witness some of a surgery. It is quite an interesting experience to go into the operating theater and see the whole team of surgeons, anaesthetists and nurses working together to ensure the successful operation. This was a very long operation - double mastectomy and full reconstruction. This was going to go for 10 hours, and I only saw the first two hours before I had a tutorial to attend.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
What is your favorite clinical sign?
What is your favorite clinical sign? I got asked this question by someone last week at my clinical school.
It was something I had not thought about very much in fact. However, the first thing I shall say is that as medical students and doctors, we should be wary of referring to patients as their clinical sign instead of as a person with their clinical sign when there is a possibility of them hearing. It is understandable that doctors and medical students want to take shortcuts with their language amongst themselves to convey information quickly, but some patients take offense to referring to them as "the murmur in 1.1" for instance rather than "the person with a murmur in 1.1" or "Mr A with a murmur in 1.1".
The other thing to take note of is that pathological signs while "cool" to medical students and doctors may not be "cool" to those patients experiencing the pathological processes associated with them.
Now that all that is said, what is my favorite clinical sign? There are quite a few which I have found interesting, and a few others which I have heard of but have not seen myself.
Of those which I have personally seen, the first one is aortic stenosis. I have mentioned this one before in my blog, since this I have examined a few patients with this. The change in the loudness of the murmur with full expiration and sitting upright is quite remarkable!
Another one is the prominent v waves on the JVP of tricuspid regurgitation. It is quite fascinating to see the jugular vein pulsating up and down very prominently on the right side of the neck.
Another one is clubbing. Clubbing has many causes; some respiratory, some cardiovascular and some other causes. Very marked clubbing can be quite a sight to see when compared to normal fingers.
The other one is an upgoing plantar response. Usually the plantar reflex is down in adults, but it goes up in upper motor neuron pathology such as MS or with strokes. It was quite spectacular to see the first time around.
The last one I have personally seen which I will mention (which I find interesting but not as much as the other ones) is the "shifting dullness" of ascites.
Of those which I have not personally seen, Pemberton's sign sounds quite spectacular to see. I have heard that a medical student was particularly amazed when eliciting this for the first time during an exam that they had to be prompted by the assessor to continue the examination.
The last one I will put on my list is the flashlight test for hydrocele.
So that's my take. What's your favorite clinical sign?
It was something I had not thought about very much in fact. However, the first thing I shall say is that as medical students and doctors, we should be wary of referring to patients as their clinical sign instead of as a person with their clinical sign when there is a possibility of them hearing. It is understandable that doctors and medical students want to take shortcuts with their language amongst themselves to convey information quickly, but some patients take offense to referring to them as "the murmur in 1.1" for instance rather than "the person with a murmur in 1.1" or "Mr A with a murmur in 1.1".
The other thing to take note of is that pathological signs while "cool" to medical students and doctors may not be "cool" to those patients experiencing the pathological processes associated with them.
Now that all that is said, what is my favorite clinical sign? There are quite a few which I have found interesting, and a few others which I have heard of but have not seen myself.
Of those which I have personally seen, the first one is aortic stenosis. I have mentioned this one before in my blog, since this I have examined a few patients with this. The change in the loudness of the murmur with full expiration and sitting upright is quite remarkable!
Another one is the prominent v waves on the JVP of tricuspid regurgitation. It is quite fascinating to see the jugular vein pulsating up and down very prominently on the right side of the neck.
Another one is clubbing. Clubbing has many causes; some respiratory, some cardiovascular and some other causes. Very marked clubbing can be quite a sight to see when compared to normal fingers.
The other one is an upgoing plantar response. Usually the plantar reflex is down in adults, but it goes up in upper motor neuron pathology such as MS or with strokes. It was quite spectacular to see the first time around.
The last one I have personally seen which I will mention (which I find interesting but not as much as the other ones) is the "shifting dullness" of ascites.
Of those which I have not personally seen, Pemberton's sign sounds quite spectacular to see. I have heard that a medical student was particularly amazed when eliciting this for the first time during an exam that they had to be prompted by the assessor to continue the examination.
The last one I will put on my list is the flashlight test for hydrocele.
So that's my take. What's your favorite clinical sign?
Friday, July 5, 2013
[update] 2013 Melbourne MD student conference
The MD student conference finished yesterday. This conference is something which is quite unique to the Melbourne medical school, and contains topics which aren't in the curriculum generally. For instance, it has among other things some social science topic symposiums and other things with some relevance to medicine but not clinical or basic sciences per se.
For the conference we had to also write an assignment of 1500 words and as MD2 people we have to review two MD1 assignments (both pass/fail). I decided to get my assignment over and done with yesterday and today.
Next week we will resume class in the hospital again. My next term is the Surgery term.
For the conference we had to also write an assignment of 1500 words and as MD2 people we have to review two MD1 assignments (both pass/fail). I decided to get my assignment over and done with yesterday and today.
Next week we will resume class in the hospital again. My next term is the Surgery term.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)