SP Heaven

Today I had my end-of-third-year clinical skills test, aka the CCCE, or as I like to call it the CCCCCCCCCCCCE. I don't know what any of the C's actually stand for. It's just it's name. Because doctor's like abbreviations. Especially OB/Gyn's.

It was an standardized patient's dream. 11 of us showed up at 0730, which was sleeping in for me this month, and went and talked to 11 different "patients". Some of them had just histories to take, and some of them had physical exams on top. And the pedi patient wasn't even there, just their parent. It was a long grueling day of taking histories and doing physicals on people who were just pretending to be sick. My favorite was the patient who was supposed to be homeless and somehow the testing center had let a fly into that exam room. I guess they were just going for realism.

Anyway, I have a special place in my heart for standardized patients. They have a job that honestly you couldn't pay me enough to do. Especially brave are the patients who taught us the urology (DRE and male genital exam) and the breast/pelvic SP. Can you imagine having your prostate checked and then having to turn your head and cough 10 times in a row for people who have no real experience doing said exam? How about having your well-woman done 6 times in a day by people who are highly likely to do it wrong? Somebody should call Mike Rowe.