Unlearning the Diagnosis

Patients and healthcare providers LOVE a “diagnosis,” am I right?!?!

Source
Pain diagrams are used in clinics to allow people to illustrate where they experience their pain. It’s an interesting exercise because you see a wide variation of pain patterns.
I like when patients fill them out so that I have a rough idea of what parts of their bodies are giving them problems. One day, a patient came in and did not fill out the diagram but wrote down the words: adductors, piriformis, Gemelli.

This triggered many questions:

• Was she right?
• That’s super specific. How did she come to this conclusion?
• What do I say if she’s wrong?
• Does anybody have to be “right” as long as they get better?

After residency, I decided to make it a general rule not look at the patient’s chart before I walk into the room. Why do you ask? As a resident, you learn from a multitude of people with years of experience. Read More