My Day's Work
The third year medical students spend some time out on the wards, meeting real patients.
As part of their Communication Skills sessions at the university, they can practise dealing with a situation that they have come across, and perhaps felt that they didn't handle very well. Or perhaps they think they need to practise explaining a procedure - - an endoscopy, or a barium meal. Or perhaps they would like to practise talking to a patient who's just been told some bad news (a third year student would not actually be breaking the bad news, of course). Or they may just want to practise taking a medical history of a patient who's just been admitted to hospital - which is something they have to do quite often, and it's very easy to miss bits out and never find out, for example, if the patient smokes, which can be crucial.
There are five or six students in a group. One chooses to do the roleplay, and, together with the facilitator, decides what the student wants it to be about.
Then this student goes out: the simulated patient comes in, and the facilitator, the group and the simulated patient devise the scenario together. "You drink red wine, but only at the weekend." The student comes back in and then they do the consultation, and the student, the facilitator, the simulated patient and the rest of the group analyse what went well and what might perhaps have been done differently.
It's a constructive, supportive learning environment and most students find it very useful.
I am a simulated patient, of course, and very used to working in this way, and I love it. Usually, however, I work from a pre-written brief rather than helping to devise the roles.
Today I have done four sessions, each of about an hour and a half, and I have played several roles:
1) A woman with suspected hepatitis who doesn't know how she could have contracted it - - but she has a husband who works abroad a lot - - she didn't know it could be a sexually transmitted disease, and nor did she know what her husband had been getting up to whilst abroad - -
2) The mother of a twenty-year-old who was concerned that she was anorexic, though the daughter hotly denied this - - there was a drama student, a trainee simulated patient, playing my daughter and it was good practice for the student to deal with Sulky Daughter and Interrupting Mother!
3) A woman who'd had a stroke, lived on her own, and didn't want to go into care, because she had a lovely house and the garden was her pride and joy - - -
4) The mother of a teenager who had to have a bronchoscopy to examine her lungs - - again there was a drama student playing the teenager - -
It was fascinating to do, of course. But, as with previous weeks when I've worked in this way, I find that I'm really tired afterwards. I find myself thinking afterwards that hey! it wasn't an eight-hour shift at the coal face, after all, so why am I so tired?
I do lots of roleplay, much of it quite emotional, and I find that these days are the most tiring that I do. So I think it's because it's a mixture of quite emotional content and having to devise it, and then learn the role as it's devised, with all the details of a patient's family and medical history and lifestyle.
Anyway, I just thought you might like to know a bit more about it. And now I'm going to bed. Though it's only nine o'clock. Phew.
As part of their Communication Skills sessions at the university, they can practise dealing with a situation that they have come across, and perhaps felt that they didn't handle very well. Or perhaps they think they need to practise explaining a procedure - - an endoscopy, or a barium meal. Or perhaps they would like to practise talking to a patient who's just been told some bad news (a third year student would not actually be breaking the bad news, of course). Or they may just want to practise taking a medical history of a patient who's just been admitted to hospital - which is something they have to do quite often, and it's very easy to miss bits out and never find out, for example, if the patient smokes, which can be crucial.
There are five or six students in a group. One chooses to do the roleplay, and, together with the facilitator, decides what the student wants it to be about.
Then this student goes out: the simulated patient comes in, and the facilitator, the group and the simulated patient devise the scenario together. "You drink red wine, but only at the weekend." The student comes back in and then they do the consultation, and the student, the facilitator, the simulated patient and the rest of the group analyse what went well and what might perhaps have been done differently.
It's a constructive, supportive learning environment and most students find it very useful.
I am a simulated patient, of course, and very used to working in this way, and I love it. Usually, however, I work from a pre-written brief rather than helping to devise the roles.
Today I have done four sessions, each of about an hour and a half, and I have played several roles:
1) A woman with suspected hepatitis who doesn't know how she could have contracted it - - but she has a husband who works abroad a lot - - she didn't know it could be a sexually transmitted disease, and nor did she know what her husband had been getting up to whilst abroad - -
2) The mother of a twenty-year-old who was concerned that she was anorexic, though the daughter hotly denied this - - there was a drama student, a trainee simulated patient, playing my daughter and it was good practice for the student to deal with Sulky Daughter and Interrupting Mother!
3) A woman who'd had a stroke, lived on her own, and didn't want to go into care, because she had a lovely house and the garden was her pride and joy - - -
4) The mother of a teenager who had to have a bronchoscopy to examine her lungs - - again there was a drama student playing the teenager - -
It was fascinating to do, of course. But, as with previous weeks when I've worked in this way, I find that I'm really tired afterwards. I find myself thinking afterwards that hey! it wasn't an eight-hour shift at the coal face, after all, so why am I so tired?
I do lots of roleplay, much of it quite emotional, and I find that these days are the most tiring that I do. So I think it's because it's a mixture of quite emotional content and having to devise it, and then learn the role as it's devised, with all the details of a patient's family and medical history and lifestyle.
Anyway, I just thought you might like to know a bit more about it. And now I'm going to bed. Though it's only nine o'clock. Phew.
posted by Daphne at 8:29 pm
5 Comments:
I can understand easily how you must feel very drained! And I'm in awe of your acting abilities too. That is a hard job you do!
Good grief, I need a nap just reading about what you did!
I understand your tiredness too. It takes a lot of focus and concentration to do what you are doing.
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Nine o clock? Wait on! You have another role play to do. It's an emergency. You've got to be Sophie Rayworth reading the news as the real Sophie is on a West End drinking binge with Amy Winehouse and her entourage...
Good evening, this is the nine o clock news with Sophie Rayworth...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
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