a new AAU firm

we had another firm of students join the acute admissions unit today

as usual we introduced ourselves, briefly mentioning our genetic inheritances

this time the group's knowledge of what a SNP is was good, thanks to the presence of a geneticist

i have written about SNPs before - it is an area of such growing importance that i would strongly recommend you find out something about them
_ _ _

our case discussion, truncated because of time was again centred around 'dizziness'

while we did not go through things in great detail, the importance of disentangling the terminology was highlighted (see previous post)

the other thing that struck me was the need for detail when it comes to the history in this presenting problem

you really do need to find out everything you can about the circumstances of what happened

eg, where: which shop? which department? having just done what? carrying what? wearing what?

all these details will help you to build up a picture of 1) what this lady's cognitive function is like and 2) clues that point to a specific diagnosis (eg fast onset-fast offset for arrhythmia)
_ _ _

we also mentioned how to start a case presentation well (content - the right amount of data & process - a positive, professional dialogue)

'framing' the problem is key, because without asking the right question, you cannot hope to find the right answer

i would encourage you to watch how real doctors present cases

how many of them need the notes to present? not many i suspect

could you present without your notes?


Salaam


sabih