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<p>You really have no idea what being a doctor entails.</p>
<p>75% of the diagnosis is arrived at by taking a good history. 15% with the physical exam. Labs and imaging contribute only 10% towards the diagnosis. </p>
<p>The ability to elicit a good history is entirely dependent on your social skills. Do you think people like talking about their STD’s or their rectal bleeding or their breast mass? If you don’t get a good history, you have not done your job as a physician. You have to make the patients realize they can trust you with the most intimate details of their lives.</p>
<p>The same with the physical exam. It’s all about making the patient feel comfortable. Otherwise, why would a lady let me perform a vaginal exam? Or a guy let me perform a rectal exam? </p>
<p>On our 3rd year evaluations, we are graded on 8 categories, only two of which have to do with knowledge and clinical reasoning. The other 6 categories assess our attitude, our patient report, our presentation skills, our initiative, the quality of our documentation and notes. Those are the exact things that are assessed during the medical school application process. it’s quite possible to be smart but still fail miserably at those other factors.</p>