Yesterday, I undertook my first GP day out of four that I have in the GP placement (weekly) this year. It was a refreshing change being assigned to a GP clinic which was a lot closer to my home than the clinical school was, in contrast to the case for many of the other people I have spoken to. They were also kind in letting me share the lunch that was bought for those in the clinic!
The first session was very interesting, and I was encouraged by the GP I was with to participate and attempt to take the history and examinations first for some patients myself. In that way, I consider myself lucky, comparing against some of the other stories I hear around.
In general, it was interesting to note the contrast between "undifferentiated" patients visiting GP and those visiting the ED; those going to ED were sicker. That said, it also hit home that we didn't have much practice interviewing in some of the more common (compared to hospital) GP presentations like URTIs and neuro/muscular type pain, so I was a bit unsure of what to do at times. I also had the practical experience of seeing a final year medical student pick up on systems review something important which was not the presenting complaint of the patient, which I did not ask about myself, reinforcing the usefulness of the systems review as part of the medical interview. So it was all a useful experience. Looking forward to the placement next week!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to discuss issues relating to the post here. However, please note that any spam, advertising, inflammatory comments or comments that can potentially identify anyone in real life may be deleted subject to my discretion.
Exception: if a poster intentionally identifies him/herself but does not compromise anyone else's anonymity, the post may not be deleted.
If anyone wants to contact me directly, please email: zero zero one one five nine five (all in numbers) AT gmail DOT com (sorry, antispam measure).