PPS

Right before I left for PPS. 

PPS here at Baylor stands for Patient, Physician, Society.  It's a time set aside once a week during the afternoon where we meet with a facilitator/physician that works locally and has volunteered their time to help us learn 'how to be' a doctor.  Included are the physical exams, history workups, and inspection of various problems with a patient.  Then the following week after meeting with our facilitator we are assigned a preceptor/physician in the community where we go and learn firsthand how to do particular exams with 'real' people.

Today was my first day of PPS, and I was assigned with an internist here in the medical center.   Truthfully he looks and has the demeanor of Sean Connery.  Stern, handsome, and older.   Our particular area that we were suppose to focus on was the physical exam of the upper extremities (shoulder, arm, forearm, hand).   For most of the patients, this exam was irrelevant and useless but for a particular one is proved to be very effective.  Mr. Jones (any identifying information has been changed) was about 55 and had previously suffered from a stroke earlier this year.  He was healthy, not overweight, with no underlying medical conditions.   However, after being told that his speech was slurring at work, he went to the doctor and was diagnosed.   Now he was coming to us to be accessed if was was eligible for disability.   He had asymmetrical reflexes, flexibility, and attenuated coordination on the right side.  Much more was discussed but I was impressed at how my preceptor was both knowledgeable and understandable.  Plus it was nice to use something that we learned in class to access someones condition.  Sometimes I felt he could have been a little more personable - but that's just me.

I think PPS will be a great tool for us as students so that we can remember every once in a while what being a doctor is truly about.   Not just lectures and studying all day long.  I look forward to working with my preceptor some more and learning 'how to be' a doctor.


WOD: "DT"  135# 3 rounds of:  12 deadlifts/ 9 hand cleans/ 6 jerk press
times - 9:34