CME4LIFE

🩺 MONDAY MINI CASE

Your patient says: “This cough just won’t go away.”

Before jumping to a diagnosis, what do you want to know?

Duration? Dry or productive? Medications? Smoking history? Associated symptoms?

Sometimes the most important part of the case is knowing what to ask next.

👇 What’s the FIRST question you’d ask?

🫁 ONE IMAGE. ONE PEARL.

Here's a simple respiratory reminder:
Stridor ≠ wheezing.

🔊 Stridor is typically a harsh, high-pitched sound associated with upper-airway obstruction.

🎵 Wheezing is a musical sound more commonly associated with narrowed lower airways.

Where you hear the sound and when you hear it during the respiratory cycle can provide important clues.

📌 Save this for your pulmonary review.

OK folks, this is too much fun to NOT post and give you some homework. Here is your homework. Post your picture here after you are done.

Put this into ChatGPT with a picture of you and post your picture.

Here is the prompt:

Give my personality a mascot using what you know about me and the uploaded photo for my appearance, invent a funny cartoon mascot that represents my personality. Feature a glamorous cartoon version of me posing beside the mascot as if we are an iconic duo. The mascot can be an animal, creature, object, or completely imaginary character. Give it one small accessory or detail that connects it to me. Add its name and one short tagline explaining its energy. Keep everything else minimal. White background, clean composition, polished colorful cartoon artwork. Do not ask me what the mascot should be. You decide.
Here is mine... See less

Something light but still educational.

✍️ NO GOOGLING.

How many can you translate?
SOB
NPO
PRN
BID
ROM
LOC
Easy? 👀

Okay…drop ONE medical abbreviation in the comments and see if someone else can decode it.
But please don't make us regret asking. 😂

💊 MEDICATION MINUTE

Acetaminophen is everywhere.
Headache?
Fever?
Pain?
But here's the important part: patients may unknowingly take acetaminophen from more than one product at the same time, especially when using combination cold/flu or prescription products.

That makes one simple question valuable:
👉 “What else are you taking?”

Medication reconciliation isn't just about prescription bottles.
OTC products count too.

📌 Save this reminder for practice.

🧾 YOUR SEPTEMBER MEDICAL RECEIPT IS READY.

How did the month go?

Add one point for each:
☐ Learned a diagnosis you’ll never forget
☐ Looked up a medication you definitely should’ve remembered 😅
☐ Got a question right purely because you spotted one tiny clue
☐ Had to Google an abbreviation
☐ Learned something useful from a patient
☐ Corrected a medical TV show out loud
☐ Drank coffee that had gone cold hours ago ☕
☐ Saved a CME4Life post “for later” 👀

What’s your September total out of 8?

▶️ WHAT IF THE PROBLEM ISN’T WHAT YOU KNOW…BUT HOW YOU TAKE THE TEST?
You know the material.
Then the question appears.
Two answers look right. 😵‍💫
You change your answer.
Then discover your FIRST choice was correct.
Sound familiar?
John Bielinski has spent years teaching PAs how to approach board questions, and his YouTube content goes beyond reviewing medical facts to tackle test-taking strategy too.
If PANCE/PANRE questions have you second-guessing yourself, this one is worth adding to your watch list.
▶️Watch John discuss taking the PANRE-PANRE LA here: https://zurl.co/fF6TO

🩺 THE PATIENT SAYS:
“I’ve been tired all the time lately.”

That’s it. That’s all you get. 👀

Before labs. Before imaging. Before jumping to a diagnosis…what are the first THREE questions you want to ask?

There are plenty of directions this history could take, and we want to hear yours.

Drop your three questions below. 👇

📱 YOU CAN KEEP ONE.

Every medical/study resource on your phone is disappearing except ONE. 👀

What's surviving?

💊 Drug reference
🧮 Medical calculator
📚 Question bank
📝 Notes app
🩻 Clinical reference
📖 Guidelines

Or something we haven't mentioned?

👇 Tell us the ONE resource you refuse to delete.

And check the comments, you might find something worth adding to your own toolkit!