Physical Assessment Exams

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Specializes in PICU, ED, Infection Control, Education, cardiology.

In order for me to start my clinical (advanced assessment course), I need to pass a clinical assessment validation exam. I wondering if all programs have this requirement and what it actually entails. My school has not been very forth coming with an answer. I'm just looking for a general feel of what happens with these. I've done some research and it seems many programs have these at the beginning.

Thanks

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Specializes in cardiac.

We just had to have a partner and perform a full physical exam on them in front of the instructor. Head to toe then write up our findings. We had a handout describing the exam to study and I practiced on my family. I'm sure there are good videos out there as well.

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Specializes in PICU, ED, Infection Control, Education, cardiology.

Thanks for the reply. My fear is that I will not be prepared. I'm used to being in the peds ICU and doing focused assessments. I am guessing that this will be general since everyone had a different background. I guess I am over analyzing.

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We did a complete history and then head-to-toe exam on a paid surrogate (no GYN or GU) and wrote that up in SOAP format; the interview and exam were videotaped and our instructors watched them and made them available to us so we could see if we were doing anything distracting such as saying "um" repeatedly.

We also did surrogate GYN and GU exams - not videotaped! and wrote these up in SOAP format as well.

We had volunteers come in with an acute complaint (they were given a complaint by our instructors) so we could do a focused history and exam based on the episodic problem. Then, of course, we wrote that up.

All of these were pass/fail and had to be passed prior to moving to clinicals.

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