Please note he is glued to the bed.....

Friday was our Clinical Skills session- the clinical skills course is a random combination of sessions which runs through 3rd Year, with no regular pattern, or real connection to current academic or clinical practice topics.

This one was loosely themed around Cardiovascular examination technique, valvular disease and an introduction to Harvey.

Harvey
We were introduced to Harvey as "The chap in the bed next door with no legs, and a bad haircut." He is also glued to the bed (so you can't really examine his hands), at a fixed angle (so you can't make him sit at 45 degrees) making him somewhat useless for the finer points of cardiovascular examination.

Harvey can mimic several types of heart condition, and has a nice chart showing the condition you want and the magic code you have to type into him to get it. He/it then can move their apex beat and heart sounds within the chest, though these at any time are only audible if you hold the stethescope directly above the area - there is no sense of it radiating or getting louder as you get closer. Also His rib interspaces are well marked out with dirty fingerprints!

Still I feel sure that I will be back to see Harvey again this year to listen and try to understand valve disease.