This is why I am just a 4th year and he is a consultant!!

Yeah!!! I found a place to stay alr.. After 3 weeks of house hunting I finally found a place and I am going to move in this Saturday. It is going to be another 2 weeks without Internet so I think I better update this before I move over.

My 8 weeks of psych rotation is coming to an end. One more week to go. Just had my observed interview with my consultant today. Although this only carries 25 % of the whole psych's assessment, this is the assessment that freak me out the most. It is really daunting to do an interview in front of this consultant because he is so experienced and knowledgeable.
Actually he is a really nice consultant. For the past 7 weeks I really learnt a lot from him. He totally changed my view to the world of psychiatric. I was scared and had some degree of stigma toward these psych patients but after this rotation, I find that psych is really an interesting field. He spares time for us, give us tute even though he is not obliged to do so, spares time for us to do presentation to him every week and most importantly he made us feel the sense of belonging. He always emphasised that we are part of the team and not the little insignificant plankton that float around in the ward. He includes us in every ward round and family meeting. Quite grateful and fortunate to have him.
Today again he amazed me. I had my worst history taking ever today in front of him. I was so anxious and nervous before i went in the interview room because this is the 1st time he actually sits in with me for an interview. We usually do the interview by ourselves and after that just present the case to him. which means we can pull our way through even though we missed out some part of the important history but not this time.
I knew I would be having a hard time when he told me which patient i was going to interview. This patient is a really poor historian and he can never get to the point and answer the question. He will just go on and on and on and go off track. As predicted, after half an hour, all I got from him was a vague picture regarding his life and his presenting complaint.
My consultant stopped me after that. The 1st question he asked after the patient went out of the interview room was " how do u think about the interview?" Then a silent from me... Then he said he thought it was all right if only I were given more time. Then he started to tell me that my role there is to do an assessment of the patient and not to be a social worker. haha.. but all these while i was told to "ask open question, build rapport and show empathy"
After all the " grilling" and constructive feedback, I still looked puzzled. I understand all the things that he said but....how to do it when you don't want to make the patient feels that he is being interrogate and you want to build a good rapport with the patient? I just dunno how to do it and I think from the way I look he knows I need help .Then to my surprise, he offered. He said " let me show you how to do it!"
He brought the patient in again. This time he did the interview. The only word that I can describe the way he structured the questions is WOW.. He guided the patient so well that in 4 minutes the whole picture of why the patient was brought into hospital become so clear. Then he also managed to illicit the clear psychotic features on the patient. Just as I was getting so amazed by him, he looked at me and give me a 'winner's grin' ..Yeah.. that is why im still a 4th year and he is a consultant..impressive!!!
How I wish i had a recorder to record down the way he did the interview. It was so nicely done that he got all the information he wants without pissing off the patient with endless question. After he ended the question. He said. " see how i did it? I got all the information and how's my rapport with the patient? I didn't spoilt the rapport did I ?" haha.. then another winner grin from him, a bigger and broader one this time. " You will get there some how. I have confident in you and I would love to see you coming back to us in your 6th year psych rotation!" How encouraging these words are. It really helps to brighten up my day :)