Following the same method as when you evaluate patients, you should present patients in a similar way. In this video I go over a method I based on C. Davenport’s paper (see the website for the reference).
Here’s a link to the PDF I made while making the video. Again, let me know what you think in the comments.
my peripheral brain 
Fantastic! I’m a clerkship director in Southern California and plan to utilize your blog heavily in educating my students. Thank you for the time and effort you are putting into this…
It’s great to hear what is going through an attending’s head as a student is presenting, and also what is ideal for you to hear as an ER attending. I am going into family medicine and the way I am used to presenting is much more detailed. This is a great way to be able to tailor my presentation to a format that is much more suitable for the ER. Thanks!
I agree with my colleague, Dan — I have always wanted to know more about the thought process of my attendings. I am glad I watched this video on Day #2 of my rotation — I’ll be able to put this to use right away! I do have one question — I have been told in the past to include brief pertinent past medical history in the initial presentation, e.g. “a 57 year old male *with a history of MI in 2003* presents with chest pain since 5am today” so that it somewhat risk-stratifies the patient from the beginning of the presentation — is including this tidbit of information earlier helpful? Or should I just save it for the secondary survey/detailed H&P? Finally, I find the assessment and plan portion of the video very informative for knowing how to demonstrate higher order thinking to my attendings; I wish I had this video at the beginning of my clerkships!
Jenn, of course! That small bit of information is often immensely helpful. Pertinent past medical history can be very useful in stratifying your differential diagnosis. However, be wary of including everything – especially irrelevant things – in there.
This was a great introduction on presentations. It’s been a fairly difficult process as a student to learn to present relevant information while not using up to much of an attending’s time. Your process is a great insight into how to properly present a patient while still getting a chance to lay out a straightforward assessment and plan.
Excellent presentation on presentation. School taught the getting the information part, but this helps to put it into context.
Great! Now I know what my attending physicians think! The PDF would be really helpful for clerkship directors to send to their students before they start their EM rotation (or any rotation for that matter). I tried to click on it, but it takes me to a false page. This would be beneficial for educators to train their students in a way to be more effective in presenting patients to their attending physicians.
Excellent video. The link to the PDF also takes me to a false page. This video is certainly beneficial for giving a concise, yet detailed presentation to ER attendings. I highly recommend this video to medical students who are beginning third year clerkships so that they can get a head start on learning how to properly present a patient.