let us post put mistakes - ganong

[ArchivalUser]

HEY SHUDNT V POST OUT MISTAKES SO THAT V VILL GET TO KNOW VAT MIGHT HAVE CAUSED OUR FAILURE.SOME OF US DONT EVEN KNOW Y V FAILED SO V MIGHT GET SOME HELP FROM EACH OTHER.....I AM SURE IT WILL B HELPFUL FOR ALL OF US WHO DIDNT DO WELL.....THANKYOU

[ArchivalUser]

Hello ganong. well here are mine

1:wrong approach. i took the literary meaning of CS seriously. it means Clinical Skills but it should be, as someone said earlier Communication Skills. going through FA i was more worried about asking all the mentioned question(which are A LOT) and finishing the cases in time. i thought CIS is all about knocking on doors, washing hands , smiling when necessary and the whole lot which everyone of us knows and which everyone of us does but still some people manage to fail(fail is a very harsh word. especially for people like me.so lets say from now on : cant manage to clear). i studied FA again and again, memorized each and every question of all the cases. i had 2 whole months in which i had to get my visa and also prepare for cs. thought at the end, i think i did enough ,bring on the exam. but u see people, CS is not about asking the right questions. its all about asking them in a correct manner. its all about exuding confidence in yr words, yr behaviour, yr facial expressions. the pt should feel that he is in good hands. i went about my exam as it was mentioned in FA. but most of the time i had a dead serious expression on my face. even if my words were sympathetic my facial expressions werent. but i think, how much facial expressions are enough. that day all the cases were stable. such simple cases that even FA doesnt consider it worthwhile to mention them. still think i did enough from the facial expressions point of view. but any way , i couldnt clear CIS, so i have no option but to assume that something was wrong in my acting and so i am giving some extra attention to that 'acting' part from now on.

2: loosing my cool. that day the crowd was exceptionally smart. they used to get in the room within 10seconds of the announcement to start the pt encounter. on seeing them i panicked. i thought that i would not get enough time to finish my case. so i just made a note of the pt name, vitals and enetered the room. somehow i managed to think of the differential diagnosis durng those 15 mins itself and aksed the qs. i did score very well on the ICE part but i thought that i did ICE very bad. while trying to ask all the questions for a case whose diff diagnosis was not known to me, i panicked and that somehow showed on my face and in my voice. the sps are experts in smelling fear and that they did. as a result in all that hurry, anxiety and fear my CIS must have definitely suffered. u see , u have to appear confident of what u speak. even if u forget something, which we all do, we have to keep cool and appear calm on the outside even if there is a grade 5 hurricane going on inside us. that confidence which we show helps a lot as far as CIS is concerned. so now i am going to have faith in myself no matter what happens. i will spend 30-45 seconds outside the room. note down atleast 4-5 diff diagnosis of every case and then ask all the relevant questions only. FA is good, but we have to draw the line somewhere. CS is all about doing average in ICE,CIS and SEP. doing excellent in one and failing in another is bad. so the moral of the story is KEEP COOL.

3: time running out. that happened only once, in a case of stroke. i couldnt explain the diff diagnosis and workup to the pt, although i did mention to the pt that it was probably a TIA during the history taking. and when the bell rang i had this expression of absolute terror on face. i thought that now i will fail since i couldnt complete this case and that was the only one i couldnt complete. i just said to the pt " some tests have to be done" and left. the look which she gave me is still imprinted on my mind like a photograph. it was a look of absolute disgust . it was as if she was ashamed that i did that case so miserably. but still at the end i thought 1 case out of 12 isnt so bad. but my result proved it otherwise.

any way people this is my story. i now think that the key to passing CS is confident attitude, ability to ask the right questions and ofcourse finishing all cases in time. important thing is definitely your skills but if u think that u have the 'clinical' skills try to polish yr 'acting' skills, something which i aim to do during my observership and last of all, arrive atleast 1 week prior to exam or else u will have jetlag during yr cs, like i did and u wont be able to 'act' properly.

[ArchivalUser]

Thanks for sharing your experience. This is of great value to me and it takes courage to admit your mistakes. We should all build upon and learn from this.

[ArchivalUser]

okkk tat was nice flanker to have shared ur experience..i have prety much the same experience...my 1st case was abt an AA MALE age around 45-50 vth constipation...like always ist case is a bit nervous...but i somehow did all the stuff like shaking ,nocking and stuff...but vat i didnt do was didnt ask all the points from the checklist....he wasnt taking enough vegetables so i had to counsel him abt fiber diet wich i didnt...he told me he has high cholestrol so i had to counsel him abt exercis vich i didint..he was smoking but i think not tat much so i counseled him abt not to smoke...and also tat he was an occasional drinker but i asked him cage wich i shudnt have i guess...i also forgot to pull the leg rest while examining..and he told me doc will u plzz..i appologised....i will keep on recalling and posting my mistakes wich might have led to my failure...

[ArchivalUser]

i failed in ICE AND CIS...my ice wasnt good,yes.but i dunno how did i fail in cis as i thought i did pretty well there but seems they had other ideas abt me....