The human brain does one thing better than anything else — pattern recognition. There is a massive chunk of your brain that does pattern recognition all day. The beautiful thing about patterns is that once you start seeing them, you can start applying them across multiple experiences.
Once you figure out how gravity works ( I don’t mean the physics. I mean the falling down part) you can apply the principles everywhere. If I drop this glass, it will fall and break works well with if I throw that ball, it should fall right in my partner’s hands.
Transferable patterns.
In medicine (and really life) pattern recognition is a huge benefit and speed up learning.
When I teach a new scrub tech, nurse, PA student (PA for that matter), resident or anyone about the OR and surgery I start with pointing out patterns they need to become familiar with.
This applies in the office setting as well, but that isn’t my expertise. You’ll have to think it through to use it there. (Also in school and anywhere else you can think of).
All surgeries begin with the pre-op. Make sure the patient is ready to go for surgery.
The checklist here is
- Mark the patient and review the consent.
- Review and update the H&P to be sure there are no changes in the patient’s recent history
- Make sure all pre-op orders are done (Ancef, IV fluids, NPO, etc.)
This happens every single time. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the case. This beginning part is always the same. (Yes the orders vary a little, but the theme is consistent).
During the case, there are millions of examples of this.
If someone asks for stitch, two things should ALWAYS go with it, pickups and a pair of scissors. Always, every single time. You don’t need to know the surgery or the case or anything other than the pattern.
If someone is going to put a screw in, they will need a drill, a measuring device, and the screw — every single time. If you are placing laparoscopic ports, you’ll need the trochar with the introducer and a knife. It doesn’t matter if it’s straight laparoscopy or robotics, it’s always the same. There are variations on the pattern, some people will use local on their ports sites before they make an incision and some won’t, but no one will fault you for not knowing the variable. They will crucify you for not getting the big picture. If a tech hands you a trochar before the knife, you assume that person doesn’t know anything about what’s going on, and you’ve written them off for the day.
I test new people I don’t know with stuff like that all the time, so I can gauge how much help they will be to me in the OR.
When a nurse is setting us up to do a cystoscopy, and he hands us the camera, the light cord and walks away, it infuriates me. I told one of the nurses the other day, “You are amazing! I love working with you. When we ask for the cystoscopy stuff, you hand it all onto the field and then put the screens in place so that we can see them.”
“What? Doesn’t everyone do that!!??,” she said.
“Nope, most people walk away, and we have to call them back.”
“But don’t you need the screens to see what’s going on in the bladder? That’s dumb.”
“Yup.”
Pattern recognition is key. It makes you look smart even when you don’t “really” know what’s going on and it offloads a lot of the processing your brain has to do.
It works the same way on your exams. Pattern recognition is key. Pattern recognition is the reason I can pass a multiple-choice test on any topic. It doesn’t matter what it’s on. The questions are written in a certain way, and you can tilt the odds in your favor if you can recognize those patterns. That’s way more than I have time to go into here. Maybe I’ll use that for a future issue of the Physician Assistant Exam Scholar’s Newsletter.
For today I want you to know that patterns are incredibly valuable, and you should start paying attention to them. That’s one of the reasons I wrote The Final Step. If you can offload some of the processing on the day of your exam by knowing key terms that is a HUGE benefit. That frees up all kinds of space for thinking and making connections and having new insights. Offloading processing to because you have the patterns and the key terms down saves tons of brain space.
Knowing that
- currant jelly stool = intussusception
- ice cream falling off the cone = slipped capital femoral epiphysis
- A tall thin twenty your old male = collapsed lung
- An African American female with pelvic pain = fibroids
offloads a lot of brainpower. Now, these aren’t 100% set in stone, but on your exam seeing those patterns makes it so much easier.
Anyway. You get the idea.
Get better at seeing those patterns and those questions. Use The Final Step, and you’ll start thinking ahead of the test makers.