On a previous post E made the point that assessment scales can often become a substitute for rather than an aid to clinical judgement. It’s a point I agree with, incidentally. Simply declaring that somebody, say, scores 15 on the Mini-Mental Scale Examination doesn’t really tell anyone whether they’re disoriented to time and place, or whether they have concentration difficulties. You have to sift back through the questions to get any indicator of that.
So, while we’re on the subject of assessment scales, let’s pay tribute to the greatest assessment scale of them all. It is, I dare say, the Mack Daddy, the Pimp MuthaShnizzle of assessment scales.
I refer, of course, to that clinician’s equivalent of Rate My Poo, The Bristol Stool Scale.
[Image deleted - server load too high - Menta]
Oh, people of Bristol. How your great city has given us the scale that allows us to define our poo. The joys of squeezing off a great big log and saying, “That’s a lovely example of a Type 4 I did there.” I just want to hop on a train to Bristol and run up to random strangers on Clifton Street shouting, “Thank you! Thank you for this gift that you have given to the world!”
Tags: assessment, stupidity
9 comments
October 18, 2007 at 11:40 pm
azulinebloo
DON’T CLICK ON THE “RATE MY POO”! MY EYES BURN!
PASS THE EYE BLEACH!!
MAKE ME UN-SEE IT!
Seeing that stuff in real life is fine, it’s natural and normal, but WHO photographs their own poo to put it on the internet?!
October 19, 2007 at 7:52 am
uselesscpn
At least the stool scale does have some clinical usefullness, esp with people with learning disabilities.
October 19, 2007 at 8:49 am
Jan
What! No “rusty bicycle chain”? No “randomly pebbledashed porcelain”?
This scale is incomplete. You can’t assess properly without taking auditory considerations into account, eg “flock of starlings taking flight”, “tearing hessian”, “large orange dropped down a well”.
In the interests of taste I will spare you the details of the olfactory considerations.
October 19, 2007 at 10:03 am
beakie
I will never be able to eat corn on the cob again.
Actually, I want to put a word in for assessment scales here. Used properly, they are a marvellous adjunct to clinical decision making. In a former life as a practice development nurse, I introduced the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale to the acute ward I was working on. I remember using it with a woman who had been admitted several times before with manic episodes. What came out of it was that she also experienced auditory hallucinations of her dead sister which made her profoundly sad. That had never been unearthed before, not through many many mental state examinations, probably because the question might not have been asked, or her response may not have been delved into as deeply as it was with the BPRS.
A “side-effect” of using the scale was the fact that nurses spent time with patients, listening to their experiences. In terms of engagement, the BPRS enabled much greater levels of contact and the feedback from patients was generally positive.
October 19, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Jan
Oh, my life, I’ve just found out the hard way what Azulinebloo meant by “DON’T CLICK ON THE “RATE MY POO”! MY EYES BURN!”
Bizarrely, I felt the compunction to send the link to my beloved, and, while sending it, it occurred to me that the word “link”, as well as being short for “hyperlink” is also slang for “turd”.
It’s been a tough week here in Crisis-land
October 19, 2007 at 3:09 pm
TheShrink
Some things, you know, are just plain wrong . . .
October 19, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Advanced Practitioner
I love my Bristol Stool Chart!!!!!!
Many people I see think Type 4 is diarrhoea, so it does have it’s uses!
Anyone for grapes?
October 20, 2007 at 9:56 am
zarathustra
I produced a large quantity of type 5 this morning.
Well, I did have quite a few beers last night.
October 20, 2007 at 10:07 am
azulinebloo
um…thanks?
*barfs*