Standardized Patient: Abdominal Pain

For our second standardized patient interview, we were given a patient with complaints of abdominal pain.
However, the secondary task was to incorporate 4 techniques:

1) Following a Patient's Lead
So, if the patient is describing their chief complaint and mentions something on the side (ex: I should have come in earlier.... Since my mother passed away... I needed a way to wind down)

2) Redirection
If a patient begins to ramble on and on, end it with a comment of empathy and continue seeking further, medically pertinent information. (ex: This must be a rough time for you, and I would like to help in the way that I can. So, can you tell me more about the stomach pain you've been experiencing...)

3) Clarification
Patients can be vague. They can just say, it hurts. So clarify.

4) Sensitive topics
Drugs, Alcohol, Depression, Sexual issues --- never show judgment ever. We can use the "Sometimes" techniques. (ex: Sometimes, when people feel really low, they just feel like giving up. Have you ever felt this way?)


I had hoped that I would get a female patient this time, so I can practice asking questions about reproductive issues (especially with abdominal pain, since ectopic pregnancy could be a possibility). However, I actually interviewed the exact same patient as my first time. An older gentleman... but he's nice but gives good constructive criticism, so it's alright.

My patient had pain, which I had to clarify as abdominal, and he mentioned that drinking makes it better. Ding Ding. Drinking problem. So I expanded on that.
But I think I did a pretty good job at the non-judgment part - I treated his "drinking half a bottle of vodka a day for the pain" as "taking an advil whenever the pain occured."
What I need to improve on is saying Um and Er less!!
Also, I need to make sure and ask everything in the patient history template. I often forget to ask about social support.. or I'll ask about recreational drugs but not smoking, etc.

These standardized patient interviews are a good way to practice and can be kind of fun.
We've now received a USB that will save the video of every interview we do for these next 2 years. I hope to see a lot of improvement from now until end of MS1