Physical Exam

One of the exciting things about UCSF is that we learn to do the physical exam early on. They frontload taking an H&P (history and physical) so that we can participate more in our preceptorships and at various other clinical opportunities. Last week, we had an observed physical exam where we performed the entire thing on a partner in a formal setting. We had a practice with some second-years and we were observed by a fourth year, which was very useful since everyone has their own method, and we could get tips and tricks from more experienced students. In any case, the whole physical takes a while and you would rarely actually do all the steps unless it was a new patient.

But it was fun: we started with vital signs and basic appearance. Then, we looked at the head, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and neck. A lot of that was cursory since we haven't yet learned how to use our oto-ophthalmoscopes. After that, we did a back/pulmonary exam, a chest/cardiac exam, and an abdominal exam. Lastly, we finished with a musculoskeletal exam focusing on shoulders and knees. It was very useful, and I feel a lot more comfortable if I were asked to do parts of or an entire exam on a real patient.