Kristin: Welcome to Shadow Health. We're excited you'll be learning with us this semester. Shadow Health is a simulation experience in which you'll provide care for virtual patients.
It's the first day of classes at Shadow Health University. Let's take a look inside. Meet Anna.
Anna: Hello.
Kristin: She's balancing coursework and a full-time job at the hospital. Anna's instructor hopes Shadow Health will help her students hone their health assessment skills. Demoing the program is her instructor's top priority in class today. The instructor believes this will greatly benefit students as they learn to navigate the simulation. Let's see who you and Anna will be caring for this semester.
In the health history assignment you'll gather a complete history health history when Tina comes to the clinic to establish primary care. You'll then care for Tina during her separate visits that take place over the course of a year in the single system assignments. Let's explore a few things you can do.
For now, we're in the health history assignment. Let's start a conversation with Tina. You talk to your patient by typing down here in the communication box. We'll want to introduce ourselves before we begin asking Tina questions. You can type your greeting to Tina and hit enter. I'll say, "Hello, Tina. My name is Kristin and I'll be caring for you today."
Tina: Hey.
Kristin: When you're ready to begin your patient interview, you can just type a question and press enter on the keyboard. Let's try now. I'll ask Tina, "What brings you in today?"
Tina: I got this scrape on my foot a while ago and I thought it would heal up on its own, but now it's looking pretty nasty. The pain is killing me.
Kristin: You can also use the communication box to make empathetic and educational statements. I'll take this opportunity to make an empathetic statement and say, "I'm sorry you're in so much pain. We'll try to get that under control as soon as possible."
Tina: Thanks.
Kristin: Just like with any patient, how you word your question is as important as what question you're asking. Our patients respond to over 200,000 questions. However, there are a few strategies that will help you collect the information you need to assess your patient.
Provide context. Context is important when talking to one of our patients. Because of this, each question you ask needs to work independently regardless of the flow of conversation. For example, let's say you're talking to Tina about her diet and she reports her typical breakfast. If you want to then follow up about a different meal like dinner, don't ask, "What else do you usually eat?" Instead, ask, "What do you usually eat for dinner?" This will allow you to get the answer you're actually looking for.
Tina: The usual stuff, meat loaf, chicken, casseroles, pasta, stuff like that.
Kristin: Keep questions simple. Keeping questions limited to one topic at a time will help your patient understand you better. Instead of asking, "Do you take drugs or alcohol?" ask about drugs and alcohol separately.
Tina: No. I do sometimes. Yeah, when I go out with my friends.
Kristin: Asking about both at the same time may end up with the patient answering about only one subject, but you may not know which. Avoid pronouns. Our patients respond best when you specifically refer to people or objects. For example, if you've been discussing Tina's mom and you want to know her age, avoid using the pronoun she in your follow-up question. Instead, ask Tina, "How old is your mom?"
Tina: Mom is 50.
Kristin: While it may seem tedious to type out the full noun every time, it's much harder to deal with a finding you should have uncovered but a pronoun prevented it.
You'll learn that certain physical exams are necessary as you interact with your patient. In the HEENT assignment, for example, you may want to use the ophthalmoscope to inspect your patient's eyes. To do that, you'll go to the exam menu on the left, click eyes, click opthalmoscope, then select a point on the body map and drag your mouse around to inspect her eye. You'll see the description on the action you performed down here in the transcript. Always remember to document relevant findings in the electronic health record. Once you feel you've gathered and documented all the relevant data, you can click end exam.
There are also three focused exam patients to care for. Let's meet the focused exam patients now. You can care for Brian Foster in the cardiovascular-focused exam.
Brian Foster: There's not much to tell. I'm just at that age where it's a lot easier to gain weight unless you're really active and eat like a bird. I eat pretty well but I'm not very active.
Kristin: Esther Park in the abdominal-focused exam.
Esther Park: Oh, I don't exercise every day, maybe two or three times a week. I've been doing water aerobics at the community center for years. My gentleman friend recently introduced me to Pilates.
Kristin: And Danny Rivera in the respiratory focused exam.
Danny Rivera: Oh yeah, I take vitamins every day, the gummy dinosaur kind. I don't think I'm supposed to, but sometimes I sneak extra ones to be super-healthy.
Kristin: You'll have access to concept labs for respiratory, abdominal, and cardiovascular systems. In each of these concept labs you'll be able to practice identifying normal and abnormal sounds and review the anatomy and physiology of the system. Anna's excited about everything she'll be able to do with Shadow Health this semester. The class is over so she grabs her bags and heads to the hospital.