Final Demo

Tomorrow I do my final demonstration for Health Assessment. I made a mistake when I signed up to do it the first time and was forced to take either a time on the first day of the demos or the last day (July 10th). I did not want to have this hanging over me for the entirety of finals week, so I took the spot tomorrow. Only after I signed up did someone point out to me that I was going to do my demo on my birthday.

So, what is a final demo, you ask? I know you're asking, you're just not in hearing range. So I'm going to answer. For the final demo I will be watched by either one or two professors while I go through two different assessments on my partner (I'm working with a classmate named Lauren). Lauren will have to pretend to be a patient and I have to pretend that I've never seen her before. I then do a "5 Minute Head to Toe" which will actually take about 10 minutes, but that's expected and a randomly picked system from the following options: Neurological, Abdominal, Cardiovascular/Peripheral Vascular, Respiratory/Thorax, Musculoskeletal, or Head/Eyes/Ears/Nose/Throat(HEENT).

Each of these systems has between 25 and 80 things that we have to do. For each thing that we miss, we lose either 0.5 or 1 point (depending on how many items are in that system). I'm not sure exactly how they determine a passing grade, since all the systems have a different umber of required checks. While trying to remember all the stuff I'm supposed to be palpating, inspecting, listening and percussing for I also have to treat Lauren like a 95 year old woman that might fall over and break a hip at any moment. So, bedrails up, hold her as she stands or sits, minimize the number of times she has to change position, etc.

Right now I'm hoping to get the Abdominal System or HEENT because I know them pretty well. If I get Musculoskeletal or Neuro I'm in trouble. Neuro involves checking all of the cranial nerves (there are 12 of them), cerebellar function (similar to a drunk driving test), all kinds of sensory tests and all the reflexes (biceps, triceps, patellar, achilles, brachioradialis, and plantar). Ugh. Did I mention that I have half an hour to introduce my patient, get set up, have her change into a gown, and do both systems?

The only good part about this whole demo? I know before I leave whether I've passed or not. I won't know my overall score, but they'll tell me if I pass or fail. Oh, and since I'm the first person in the program to finish, I will become the most popular person in school for a little while. That should be funny.