Internal Medicine - Propedeutics

Finally, after two years of theory, labs and seminars you get to go the the hospital and deal with real patients and start to experience what it is like to work as a doctor. In this semester you will learn the basics of a physical examination and interview.

I would also like to add here some recommendations that will not help you with passing the exam but I feel are very important regardless:

When you meet patients you represent the all the English speaking students whether you want to or not so if you create a bad impression, this could be passed on to all English speakers

Imagine you are in their situation, I'm sure you would not be the most comfortable being seen by a student who cannot speak your language well and speaks to their colleagues in a language you don't understand

When you meet a patient for the first time, introduce yourself and tell them you are only a student

Similarly thank them and say good bye when you leave

If you need to converse with your colleagues in English, tell the patient

Every time you do a physical examination tell the patient what you are going to do don't just start manhandling them

If a patient asks your advice, tell them you do not know or get them to talk to a doctor

Ask permission to sit on a patients bed to help with examinations and if it is empty don't sit on it, you will look lazy and incompetent

You have every right to be in the hospital and learn, do not let the nurses and non teaching doctors intimidate or bully you away from a learning opportunity

Obviously use your common sense, if there is an emergency, stay out of the way but you do not need to leave the room necessarily

Similarly, the patients are in a teaching hospital, they have to understand that they must allow the students to learn so don't feel bad if a patient is refusing to be compliant

Finally, do not expect students with better Hungarian knowledge to translate, that is not why they are there and everyone will have had 2 years of practise anyway, if you did not take advantage of this then that is your problem

How to pass  Don't bother going to the lectures, they are not very useful and contain lots of superfluous information

There is a guide written by students for the written part of the exam, for me it was also enough to pass the competition

Buy a stethoscope, you will need it in the first few weeks when you start practising lung sounds, most people get the Littmann classic II which is adequate for most students, you can buy them in the NET building

Learn to use the right terminology quickly if you present your patient to a doctor

Since you will normally have a large amount of time with one patient make sure you ask everything and examine fully

Try to keep a list of questions that you ask every time so that you do not miss out on anything

Even if a patient says that something is normal or not a problem still ask questions about it, they may think it is normal but it may not be

Be active in the hospital, the only way you are going to improve is to make mistakes and learn to correct them

If there is a technique that other groups have learnt that you have not them make sure to inform your doctor, spleen examination is usually missed and can be asked in the exam

Practise on your fellow students when not in the hospital

This is where all the Hungarian that you should have been learning starts to become essential, almost every patient you will meet will not speak English or will only speak it a little bit

Some doctors will translate everything for you but most will not and will still expect you to communicate with your patients

The doctors do understand that Hungarian is not your first language and so will not be annoyed if there is some misunderstanding with any information

There is a help guide for students who struggle with the language but it only contains questions so you will still need to understand the answers

In the exam you will need to speak to your patients alone, almost all the examining doctors will leave you to do this and will not translate for you

There is no time limit on interviews and physical examinations in the exam, make sure you do everything, even if it seems pointless for your patient

The theory topics and not asked in too much detail in this semester and the practical work teaching with some pathology should be enough to pass this part

The competition is 30 multiple choice questions projected on the lecture hall screen, the pass amount is different every year, for us it was 23. If you pass you are exempted from the written part of the exam with a 5

The exams
Midterms Semi final
 * none
 * Entrance exam
 * 10 multiple choice questions min 6/10 to pass
 * Practical exam
 * interview and examine a patient
 * 1 theory topic

Difficulties
Every doctor teaches the subject differently, some are focused on the physical examination and interview techniques and require you to do them perfectly and at the other end there are doctors who are only really interested in the theory behind the findings of the examination and interview

Similarly in the exam, the content ratio will be determined by the examining doctor Conclusion The more you put into this subject the more you will get out of it, you can be passive and stand near the back of the room doing nothing but you will get very bored quickly. It is one of the first opportunities to try your hand at "real" doctoring and is apparently what many of you would want to do as a career. If you are active throughout the whole semester then all you will need to do really is study for the written part and look over the topics for the oral. A few days should be enough, not bad really for 7 points!