consultation...

so today i decided to skip occupational health tutorials and sit in on the Neurosurgery clinic. This time of the year for me is Neuro Hx and Ex practice, and today musta been the best opportunity thus far. Not just sitting in, I was given a room to see patients on my own and then later confer with the registrars/consultants with my notes, to get them signed off. This afternoon would definitely be the first time i actually felt like I was a doctor.

sitting there one-on-one with the patient, in a consulting room. some of these patients had waited a couple of hours, but still they were happy to let a lowly medical student like myself assess them. Being post-operative follow ups, they weren't complicated or anything, neither did I have to diagnose them, but it was such good practice to do my examinations and histories and note subtle differences due to neuro-muscular involvement.

When I was asked to do a 1 on 1 consultation at the start of the year during the Vascular clinic, I was very very apprehensive and even scared. I did that with a final year student. But today it was different, felt like nothing could stand in my way, and was feeling really confident about my won knowledge and clinical skills. its also very interesting to note that several instances during the consultation, somehow despite my early mentioning of my medical student status, I was still asked questoins about prognosis; how and when they could return to normal activity. one patient even mentioned," i'm afraid to have sex, im afraid that if i go too hard at it, my neck will play up." and my response was," errr....ok.." and then later on, the patient did not mention this to the doctor, as easily as she said it to me.

thebreak i took 2 weeks ago has served me well. the studying is better, concentration better, and retaining and retrieving information has been good too. I hope to carry on this positive attitude and confidence as long as I can in medical school and as far as I can into my career, and making it better. each step of the way.