Year 3 Results: 3/5th of a doctor ^^

On Tuesday afternoon, we were sent an email titled: "MBBS Part 3 Results"

I clicked on the email, heart thumping and fingers a little sweaty, thinking the uni has upped it's game and has decided to release the results even earlier than the year before (!!)... instead I was greeted with this message:

"Your results for the MBBS Part 3 examinations will be      released on Blackboard Friday 13th July 2012 on                Blackboard at 2pm."

So from heart thumping, i went into a sigh of relief. 

.... that was until this morning, when the crazy refresh button bashing picked up again (just in case they decide to release things early!!).. and i see the number of students logged into blackboard gradually increase on the bottom right side bar. 11am.. nope still nothing...noon... nothing... and on the dot 2pm...  there they were! (uni didn't lie)

Paper A - 76%
Paper B - 75%
Paper C - 72%
Paper D - 71%
Paper E - 80%

Outcome: Pass with Distinction

YAYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeee i passed, 3/5th of the way there!!
Pleasantly surprised with the outcome too..  ^^


Having just passed 3rd year.. I would say... this was probably the hardest year yet.. it was more relaxing in that we didn't have as many lectures as before, or as many styles of exams to revise for. However, I still found this year the hardest to date, down to the shear amount of detail we had to go into. 

However, Summer holidays can finally begin now, and i can shout Yayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.. hello 4th Year! I've heard some pretty scary things about you, but I can't wait to begin! 

First Rotation - September - Obs and Gynae 

...until then.. it's holiday time ^^ 

Paper 3C: Data interpretation

I was sort of dreading the data interpretation paper.. i didn't really know how to revise for it, but thankfully as the paper loaded on the computer screen, I was relieved the find that the majority of the questions were pretty much like the EMQ questions I've come across in question books. 

There were a few pathology questions, but having guessed that these may come up, my friend and I did a quick review of the pathology lectures in the morning, and lucky we did... the images came straight from the lectures ^^ 

So that's it... 3rd year exams are finally over! 

Now just to start enjoying my summer break and keeping these fingers crossed until next friday..... eeks!

Paper 3Dii: OSCEs (7 minute stations)

Station 1: Lethargic patient

Okay... so from yesterday, i came to the conclusion that I really struggle with communication skill based OSCE stations. When clerking patients on the wards, i tend to speak to them for quite a while, but when i was stuck with just 10 minutes yesterday, and just the 7 minutes today.. i realised it's not smart to waste too much time being nice to the patient, but more importantly to get all the questions in. I managed to make my way to finding out about the patient's social history, before the examiner had to interrupt me and ask me a few questions before the buzzer went. Managed to get a few nods from the examiner before the buzzer sounded and i moved on. 

Station 2: ABG and interpretation

This was a rather straight forward station, with a model arm attached to a bottle of red coloured fluid and to a machine to simulate a pulse in the arm. I managed to take a sample, cleared up my mess, and then went on to interpret the blood gas question which followed. 

Station 3: Rest

I needed this one, was super thirsty at this point!

Station 4: Cardiovascular examination

This station had nothing else to it; simply just do a cardiovascular examination and present! I went into full mode autopilot, almost forgetting to assess the carotid pulses (but managed to do it before i went onto auscultation of the chest). Presented the findings just in time before the buzzer sounded. 

Station 5: PE history

I basically had to take a history and present the findings at my next station. This station went quite well. The patient presented with shortness of breath, and after finding out he has recently returned to the UK on a long haul flight, i just focussed in on a PE history, and that was that. 

Station 6: CXR 

This station should have come at the end of the last station. I went into the station, and the examiner told me i had a lot of time.. and he was right. I presented my history, and then he took out a chest radiograph. He told me i didn't had to present it, and just had to point out the abnormality. The history pretty much gave the answer away, though the CXR had a pretty large wedge shaped infact which was hard to miss.. it looked a little like this.

Station 7: Fundoscopy

This was awful! I did a quick visual examination on the patient, then picked up the opthalmoscope and had to look into the eye of the plastic head, reading off words they've stuck on bits of paper attached to each quadrant of the eye and the macula. I was really struggling to look into the eye, and this was made worse, when i was a little too rough with the plastic model head, and ended up pushing it onto the floor. I had to pick the head up mid-exam, place it back onto the stand and continue looking into the head!

Station 8: Cannulation

 This station was pretty straight forward. It was another plastic arm hooked up to a bag of red coloured fluid.  I inserted the cannula, finished the station, and was then instructed to remove it before the next student arrived. 

Station 9: Thyroid Examination

Another straight forward examination, with a question at the end. Almost forgot to assess for lid lag and opthalmoplegia, but managed to slip them in before i went on to the legs. 

Station 10: Breast Examination

So during the last CCS week, we were taught how to perform a breast examination on real volunteers, and this was basically the exact same thing.

....................... and that's it! OSCES are over for 2012 (i hope!)

Just one more paper to go on Friday, but luckily i have the day off tomorrow to cram for it...not exactly sure how i'm going to cram for a data interpretation exam >.<

Paper 3Di: OSCEs 1 (10 minute stations)

OSCE Day 1: 10 minute stations

I don't exactly look forward to OSCEs, but i always end up enjoying them each year; I suppose they're a pretty fun exam to sit ^^... even though at times, I wish the floor would open up and take me away from a cringey moment.

Station 1: Lower limb motor and sensory exam
I've practised this examination quite a bit, so i was pretty chuffed when the buzzer sounded and i turned around and saw the station instructions. I went behind the curtains and went into auto-pilot, finishing the exam with 3 minutes to spare to present my examination, and answer the examiner's questions on diabetic neuropathy.

Station 2: Non-compliant patient
This was my first ever communication skills station, and I was terrible. I asked the patient at the start to score how confident he was feeling about making a change, and he goes 8/10.... I was a bit taken back, as he already seemed quite determined to make a change, and there didn't seem to be much scope for me to "motivate" him with. ...... not sure if i passed this station.. (thankfully i think we're aloud to fail a few stations).

Station 3: Resus/ IV drip / 02 therapy
I turned behind the curtain and was faced with a plastic dummy. I was sort of confused on what I had to do for this station, but the really nice examiner sort of guided me through. So it was basically ABCDE.. with the examiner firing questions as i went along. Airway was patent, Resp rate was raised, Sats low... i had to administer oxygen... this was when i had to decide on the oxygen mask to use and the litres of oxygen to set it to. The patient was hypotensive, so I set up a drip for a fluid challenge. It's pretty hard to do a GCS or AVPU on a dummy, so we just spoke about that, and wrapped up the station discussing SBAR.

Station 4: Rest!

Station 5: Respiratory Exam and peak flow 
This was another station i've practised quite a few times, so i went into my routine, finishing off the exam with approximately 2 minutes left to quickly teach the patient how to use the peak flow machine, take 3 readings and assess on the chart whether his peak flow was normal or not. This was probably the best station of the day, as the examiner and patient were both very smiley and encouraging, and actually seemed happy to be there.

Station 6: Fainting patient
Arghhhhhhhhhhh this was another communication skills station i messed up!! I honestly struggle at making differential diagnoses on the spot under pressure; and i really had no idea what the underlying cause was >.<

Station 7: Abdominal examination/ RIF pain / Management
So.. I struggled with what to do with the patient in pain. I've always been taught to not cause the patient any pain, and the actor (very convincingly) had a right inguinal fossa pain and i just didn't know if i was meant to do deep palpation in the area or not...and when it came to management.. all surgery just went out of my head. I muttered what I could make up, and had to move onto my next station.

Station 8: Discharging a patient
This was the only communication skill station that went relatively well. The patient was to be discharged with 4 new medications, and i had to explain the drugs, their side effects, and how to take them to the patient. The  actress was really nice, and as the one minute left buzzer went, the actress guided me into telling her about lifestyle changes she could make, and before the final buzzer went, i slid the Ideas, Concerns and Expectations (ICE) in .

Day 1 of OSCES over... day 2 tomorrow!

Paper 3B: 150 SBAs (and dairy milk chocolate)

"The Barts Touch"

I entered the exam hall and snaked my way from the front of the dark wooden panelled room to the back, and again to the front of the hall as i frantically looked for the desk with my candidate number on. Having the majority of the year seated by this point, my seat stuck out, and i stumbled to it, being greeted with a fun sized chocolate bar on my desk. I thought this must have been left from the student before me (in hindsight, this was stupid, as it's the first day of exams, and the only exam of the day). I then noticed the desk ahead of me had one too, as did the one next to me.... this was the Barts' touch.

It was shortly announced during the normal exam instructions, that we have all been given a chocolate bar to help us through the 3 hour long paper. This was a pretty neat touch! - I love BL.  

Pretty glad they had that chocolate bar ready for us, I was tired as it was, and 50 questions in I was pretty much wanting to sleep there and then. This paper was bad... not the worse I've sat, but not a good paper. I made so many silly errors, and simply had no ideas how to answer some of the questions. I'm not sure i could have revised for and correctly answered the questions i had no clue about, so .. 

Meh. What's done is done, time to revise for the next two days of OSCES!!