Viewpoint: Convention or convenience?

Have you ever found yourself wondering, while hunched over a patient trying to elicit the murmur of mitral regurgitation, why your back feels it's being torn apart? Wouldn't it be easier if you just examined the patient from the left side of the bed?

What about palpating an abdomen? Have you often found (or missed, for that matter) a liver or spleen when only using one hand? Wouldn't it be better to use both hands rather than being made to use a one-handed technique …