Confronting a rather tricky interview…
Category Archives: OSCE
My OSCE top 5
My top 5 things when tackling the dreaded OSCEs
Explaining Chlamydia
Explaining a condition to a patient requires that you know about it, and also that you explain it such that the patient understands it. Here’s some information from the NHS website in normal-people language. Topics to cover: What is it? What causes it? What symptoms does it cause? How does the test work? What’s theContinue reading “Explaining Chlamydia”
Obstetric History
What to ask and why…
Explaining T.V.
How to explain a rather difficult topic
Explaining Cystic Fibrosis
A common explaining station in the OSCEs
BLS
What to do when it’s all gone wrong…
Abdominal X-ray
Chest radiographs are phenomenal in terms of how much information they can provide given how simple and easy they are to perform. Abdominal films are also useful, but less commonly used as there are fewer indications for ordering them, and they don’t give the same wealth of information that a chest film can. Nevertheless, it’sContinue reading “Abdominal X-ray”
Follow me
Let the patient guide you Searching for a diagnosis is like trying to find a certain room in a large building complex. The quickest and easiest way is to ask the person who knows where the rooms are and who has the keys to all the rooms. This person is the patient. Ask them whereContinue reading “Follow me”
Burn, baby burn
My pre-OSCE hand wash I get very nervous before exams, and I always have. I’ve been told it’s a normal response. Usually by the time the exam has started I’m alright, but the nerves before hand get very stressful. One thing that happens before OSCEs is my hands get really cold and clammy. Not onlyContinue reading “Burn, baby burn”
Dry your hands
Exam day. You’ve prepared. You’re ready-ish. You walk in to the cubicle ready to whip in a cannula or thread a catheter like a ninja, and wash your hands like the soap-wielding don that we all know you are. You then spend the next 1 minute and 47 seconds attempting to balloon-animal your way intoContinue reading “Dry your hands”
Categorise or die
You’ll probably hear this one a lot. It makes sense. There are an entire universe of conditions that can cause a lot of overlapping symptoms, so when the patient presents with one or two symptoms, it’s not massively helpful to list random conditions in the hope that one of them is right. Methodically working through whatContinue reading “Categorise or die”
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