Prior to completing this assignment, I was unaware of what elements were included in each of the SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) headings. This was my first experience writing a SOAP note, and I believe it was truly valuable. It is interesting how the same elements that are incorporated in a complete history and physical are incorporated in a SOAP note. In further reflecting upon this, the SOAP note, which typically is used for established patient visits, is often shorter. I find the assessment/plan portion of the SOAP note to be most challenging. This may be a result of the fact that we have yet to begin learning clinical medicine, and so formulating differential diagnoses remains extremely challenging.

Being that this was my first SOAP note, I am particularly proud of the fact that the information was organized correctly. Through the use of several resources (i.e. textbooks and lecture materials), understanding the components and structure of the SOAP note was made easier. I am looking forward to seeing how my future SOAP notes compare with this example.

I enjoyed the fact that after completing the SOAP note, we did additional reading regarding our topic. Seeing as though my topic was Back Pain, I read about other diagnoses that would be considered in the differential for this particular case. This was valuable because it helped explain the process of narrowing down the differential diagnosis.