Medicine Checklists

Cervical Lymph Nodes and Virchow’s node. This is high yield but omitted from the standard examination due to author preference and the length of time it requires to do properly in an otherwise time constrained exam. Touch and go.
Leuconychia. Omitted only for brevity of the hand examination – you may still look for the myriad of small hand signs, but listing 10 of them will delay your progression to more important parts of the exam.
Mental state. Useful in cases of severe hepatic encephalopathy or severe sepsis – in either case, on the wards it will be obvious and in an exam possibly confusing for your examiner without the correct stem.
Dupuytren’s Contracture. Associated with high alcohol intake but NOT liver disease – most strongly genetic. Worth noting but probably not worth looking for. Suggestions that it is linked to malignancy are difficult to find literature evidence for and not mentioned in Talley and O’Connor’s small note.
Striae/Stomas and the myriad of other observable abdominal signs. These are assumed as obvious enough that simple inspection will prompt noticing and they would be unnecessary negatives to report.
Guarding. Will be elicited upon palpation for masses – always warn the patient what you are about to do regardless.
Further Exams. Rectal and testicular exams are often considered part of the complete abdominal exam – this is not conducive to a 6 minute OSCE and would require a more advanced consent. Worth mentioning to the examiner if appropriate.

Shifting Dullness. Actual demonstration with real example – note the air filled bowel ascends towards the ceiling.
For techniques or a more complete, thorough explanation of exam signs, see T&C Ch14 or Geeky Medics.