Patient interview

How to interview a patient with neck pain

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In VMS you practice it on the patient.

MD / DOPA
Practice it in VR with Blocky

Most neck pain is muscular, but trauma, infection and nerve compression must be found early.

Step by step

  1. Introduce yourself and get consent

    If there was trauma, keep the neck still and assess for spinal injury first. [1]

  2. Onset and mechanism

    Injury, fall, car crash, sleeping position or no reason. [2]

  3. Location and radiation

    Pain down the arm, with numbness or tingling in the hand, suggests a nerve root problem. [2]

  4. Nerve and cord symptoms

    Weakness, clumsy hands, trouble walking, bladder or bowel changes: urgent. [3]

  5. Red flags

    Fever, stiff neck with headache (meningitis), cancer history, weight loss, injection drug use, severe pain at night. [3]

  6. Daily impact

    Work, posture, screens, sleep and previous episodes. [3]

  7. Summarize and plan

    Name the likely cause and the next step. [1]

Common errors

Practice it in VMS

In VMS you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.

VMS cases that train this skill

Sources

  1. AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities (Core EPAs)
  2. NBOME COMLEX-USA clinical presentations
  3. NCCPA PANCE Content Blueprint

Facts and steps follow NBOME COMLEX-USA clinical presentations; NCCPA PANCE Content Blueprint; AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities (Core EPAs). VMS is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.