Post-OSCE
Hi,
I had my end-of-year OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) on Wednesday, and found out today that I passed it. There were 11 stations, which we rotate around every 5 minutes (or 10 for the communication skills station) when a bell sounds.
I started off with breast examination, where a model was tucked up in bed and in the 5 minutes I had to examine its breasts and lymph nodes and present my findings. Next, I was given a post-op fluid balance chart to interpret and answer questions on. Following that, I moved on to a practical skills station, where I was asked to insert a nasogastric tube into a model, and then to another data interpretation station with a chest X-ray to discuss. Then there was 10 minutes of explaining catheterisation to a patient (well, an actor pretending to be a ridiculously over-concerned patient) to assess my communication skills, followed by 5 minutes to take a history from another actor complaining of leg pain on exertion and answer questions about his symptoms. Although most of the examiners were very friendly and encouraging, the surgeon in charge of this station seemed to have got out of bed on the wrong side. Fortunately, discussing the OSCE with other students afterwards revealed that he was equally unpleasant with everyone. ECG interpretation came next, where I had to identify signs of a heart attack affecting the inferior part of the heart and discuss management of the condition, and then interpretation of a set of blood results showing chronic renal failure. Then came a cranial nerve examination and ophthalmoscopy, basic life support skills on a dummy, and finally an abdominal examination of an actress with the most over-the-top abdominal pain I've ever seen!
The OSCE wasn't quite at the end of the year, as we still have another week left, allowing those who have failed to resit. Next Friday we've got a written exam, but this one is formative (meaning that it is designed to help us see how we're doing rather than to test us, so our marks don't actually count for anything) unlike the OSCE which was summative (has to be passed and marks are recorded). There wasn't a lot of point in going back to Reading for one day so I'm just taking the opportunity to read up on some rheumatology ready for going back next week. Hopefully the complicated fiddling about with various drug regimes in rheumatology clinics will make a bit more sense next week than it did last week when I was more concerned about preparing for the OSCE than mastering rheumatology.
Bye.
I had my end-of-year OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) on Wednesday, and found out today that I passed it. There were 11 stations, which we rotate around every 5 minutes (or 10 for the communication skills station) when a bell sounds.
I started off with breast examination, where a model was tucked up in bed and in the 5 minutes I had to examine its breasts and lymph nodes and present my findings. Next, I was given a post-op fluid balance chart to interpret and answer questions on. Following that, I moved on to a practical skills station, where I was asked to insert a nasogastric tube into a model, and then to another data interpretation station with a chest X-ray to discuss. Then there was 10 minutes of explaining catheterisation to a patient (well, an actor pretending to be a ridiculously over-concerned patient) to assess my communication skills, followed by 5 minutes to take a history from another actor complaining of leg pain on exertion and answer questions about his symptoms. Although most of the examiners were very friendly and encouraging, the surgeon in charge of this station seemed to have got out of bed on the wrong side. Fortunately, discussing the OSCE with other students afterwards revealed that he was equally unpleasant with everyone. ECG interpretation came next, where I had to identify signs of a heart attack affecting the inferior part of the heart and discuss management of the condition, and then interpretation of a set of blood results showing chronic renal failure. Then came a cranial nerve examination and ophthalmoscopy, basic life support skills on a dummy, and finally an abdominal examination of an actress with the most over-the-top abdominal pain I've ever seen!
The OSCE wasn't quite at the end of the year, as we still have another week left, allowing those who have failed to resit. Next Friday we've got a written exam, but this one is formative (meaning that it is designed to help us see how we're doing rather than to test us, so our marks don't actually count for anything) unlike the OSCE which was summative (has to be passed and marks are recorded). There wasn't a lot of point in going back to Reading for one day so I'm just taking the opportunity to read up on some rheumatology ready for going back next week. Hopefully the complicated fiddling about with various drug regimes in rheumatology clinics will make a bit more sense next week than it did last week when I was more concerned about preparing for the OSCE than mastering rheumatology.
Bye.
posted by Jane Davis @ 5:37 AM
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