HEEADDSS is an acronym used in adolescent medicine. The assumption is that most adolescents are healthy, and it is more important to practice health maintenance with them than to spend a lot of time on acute complaints. So, at my clinic anyway, the vast majority of time in an interview with someone between 12 and 19 is spent asking a few questions from each of the HEEADDSS categories
Home
Education/Employment
Eating
Activities
Depression
Drugs
Safety
Sexual Activity
Normally, and when done well, this picks up the primary ways teens are getting hurt, or setting themselves up to get hurt.
Normally, and when done well.
However, one of my classmates (you know who you are) made a faux pas while conducting this exam which is now legendary among the staff. Apparently, his rapport, or his style, or something, was a bit off (all right, all right, it was his first time too) but he managed to get through the entire interview and come out of the room to present the patient concluding that, though suffering from mono, the girl was pretty normal and well adjusted. Of course, when the preceptor came back into the room, the first thing he noticed were the multiple transverse unhealed razor cuts on the patient's wrists.
Observation is key.
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life, the universe, and medical residency
Nathan
All names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike.
Comments and questions welcome at jollycompany (at) gmail (dot) com.
Pretty much anything in italics is quote. Ask me if you'd like a source.
Without faith, without poetry, without music, medicine is pointless, for why save a life which is not special, and why dedicate so much effort to a cosmic accident? It would be worse than pointless, it would be cruel.
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All stories about patients follow HIPAA guidelines regarding personal information, and nowhere are the names of hospitals, schools, or other locations given. All text copyright [insert my real name]. Most pictures shamelessly borrowed from the internet.
2 comments:
Hmm, oops. You should have given the person a fake name, so it could go along with your sidebar.
So easy to miss the obvious, when learning the more arcane. Like focusing on warm blankets, when the patient isn't breathing.
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