interviewing patients

for my sweet valentine's day, a few classmates and i had the opportunity to drive up to UConn (1h) to practice interviewing standardized patients. we were NOT at all prepared for it--we haven't had much chance to practice. now you are probably thinking, how how is it to interview a patient? well, apparently for a 100% complete exam, it could take almost 1h just for the medical interview, and another 1h for the physical exam! now which dr have you seen spend that time on a patient! hah! anyhow, my first case was a 52yo woman c/o hip pain. she was my long one--40 min. and i totally screwed it up! i had 5 sec pauses...then 10 sec..then 15 sec...i just couldn't figure out what more to ask! we weren't allowed to write anything or have a cheat sheet with us. so yea, i thot it went HORRIBLY. afterwards, these "standardized patients" are trained to give us immediate feedback, and she helped me a GREAT deal. told me to stop asking so many closed ended questions, like, "When did the pain start? Where is the pain? How bad is the pain?" and just ask ONE simple question: "Can you tell me about your pain?" and STOP. Just let the patient speak, and listen! most likely the patient will tell you what he/she feels is most pressing, and then after, you can ask the 1 or 2 tiny details you'd want to know more about. that was the most helpful tip. My other 2 standardized patient interviews went MUCH better, i had almost no pauses 'cuz i asked such broad questions that they would just blab on forever. =) and so i got the info outta them without even having to think of what question to ask next! =) it was an EXCELLENT experience, and we each got to take home a videotape of all 3 practice interviews. =)

i finally forced myself to watch my first bad attempt on tape, and it wasn't so bad after all! i did pause, but i sounded/looked fine. but i do have to watch my giggling!! so unprofessional! =P we'll go back in may again and do this one more time, a "post-test" after 11-weeks of seeing patients at New Haven hospital (we start this 11-week "clinical practicum" course of seeing hospital patients next week!). And they say we'll improve beyond what we can believe. i sure hope so!!