Another fun day :-) Spent the day with the respiratory physiotherapist so I got to carry out some initial assessments of patients, asking them questions about their lung condition and listening to their chest. Normally my supervisor will listen to the chest, find an interesting noise and let me listen. This time, I was doing it first and telling him what I could hear :-) Awesome. It's amazing how many different noises there are: Coarse and fine crackles, inspiratory and expiratory wheezes, abnormal, diminished, pleural rub, and each one means or implies something different.
Another part of the assessments was feeling secretions in the lungs, simply by placing your hands in certain points and applying a firm pressure. It's pretty cool as you can feel the sputum and secretions moving under your hands.....it's rather soothing for the therapist!
In general, I definately feel like my skills have improved in 3 weeks, I know so much more than when I started! :-) Happy Happy Happy!
