We got all the marks back from our exams a few days ago, and although I failed the written exam, I got the top grade possible for my OSCEs! This means that I passed all 12 OSCE stations, with a mark of 75% + on all the stations! I didn't think that I'd done that well, especially since I ran out of time and didn't finish several of the stations. It's a nice morale boost though to know that I am capable at doing something well.
My revision for resits is going well I think. I've got a heavily laden revision timetable which I am managing to stick to so far, and I'm going to all the revision sessions available. Hopefully I've got enough time to learn enough to pass the resit exams, but if I do have to resit the year I'm trying to be optimistic about it. I wouldn't want to have to resit the year and leave all my friends, but at the end of the day it's only one year and it might be a good thing if it means that I get to learn all the basics really well which would set me up well for the rest of the course.
Thursday 27 June 2013
Sunday 23 June 2013
Results
The results came out, and as expected, my name wasn't on the pass list. Even though I was expecting it, it still hit me pretty hard. I passed the OSCEs but not the written exam. We don't find out our marks until tomorrow so I won't know until then how far away I was from the pass mark.
I've heard several times that it's rare to get through medical school without failing something, but to fail the first proper examination still seems like something a person capable of becoming a doctor shouldn't be doing. I calculated that approximately one fifth of the year failed, which makes me feel slightly better though.
I have to say that everyone is being so supportive. Several friends have offered to help me if they can. The uni are running revision days, have organised individual feedback meetings and have set up a special forum were we can ask questions to the module leads directly. A group of second years who also failed this exam are putting on revision sessions for us every weekday evening for the next two weeks and have offered us a specific second year mentor should we want it. On top of attending all of these revision sessions I'm planning on just getting up early and working really hard all day every day. There's 2 weeks until the resits, so hopefully if I make the time count I can pass the resit exams. I think that even if I weren't to do any revision I would still do better in the resits than the first time just because of how crap my brain was on the day of the exams, partly from the end of a migraine and partly from just being really worked up and stressed. I remember at one point in the exams, I couldn't even remember what the uterus was called or the name of the commonly used anti-depressant drug citalopram (something I see all the time as a Pharmacist)! I'm still going to work my ass off though.
Even though everyone's being so nice, it still feels really shameful to have failed this exam, especially after all of the hard work I did, and the good career I gave up, to get into med school. I haven't had the heart to tell my family yet. I don't want to disappoint them, but I'll have to tell them soon.
I've heard several times that it's rare to get through medical school without failing something, but to fail the first proper examination still seems like something a person capable of becoming a doctor shouldn't be doing. I calculated that approximately one fifth of the year failed, which makes me feel slightly better though.
I have to say that everyone is being so supportive. Several friends have offered to help me if they can. The uni are running revision days, have organised individual feedback meetings and have set up a special forum were we can ask questions to the module leads directly. A group of second years who also failed this exam are putting on revision sessions for us every weekday evening for the next two weeks and have offered us a specific second year mentor should we want it. On top of attending all of these revision sessions I'm planning on just getting up early and working really hard all day every day. There's 2 weeks until the resits, so hopefully if I make the time count I can pass the resit exams. I think that even if I weren't to do any revision I would still do better in the resits than the first time just because of how crap my brain was on the day of the exams, partly from the end of a migraine and partly from just being really worked up and stressed. I remember at one point in the exams, I couldn't even remember what the uterus was called or the name of the commonly used anti-depressant drug citalopram (something I see all the time as a Pharmacist)! I'm still going to work my ass off though.
Even though everyone's being so nice, it still feels really shameful to have failed this exam, especially after all of the hard work I did, and the good career I gave up, to get into med school. I haven't had the heart to tell my family yet. I don't want to disappoint them, but I'll have to tell them soon.
Friday 21 June 2013
Low Expectations
Today is results day. However, I'm not overly nervous as I fully expect my name to be missing from the pass list. I submitted mitigation for the exams a few weeks ago and on Tuesday I had to go for a meeting with a big group of people to discuss the circumstances of my mitigation. I wouldn't have had to attend this meeting if I'd definitely passed my exams, as only people who've failed or are close to the pass mark (as by the time of the meeting the definitive pass mark hadn't yet been set) have to attend. So, purely from the fact that I had to attend this meeting I know that I've probably failed. I may have just scraped a pass but I'm not putting too much hope on that.
The meeting itself wasn't too bad. I fully expected to be grilled and have them rip my mitigation to shreds, but they were actually pretty nice and sympathetic. I submitted mitigation for my chronic migraines. I take medication which helps to decrease how frequently I get migraines, but unfortunately stress is one of the triggers for them and exams and stress go hand in hand. I get stressed because of exams, this causes a migraine which then means that I miss a day's revision which then means I get even more stressed which then causes more migraines, a viscous circle. Consequently I did get several migraines in the run up to, and the night before, exams which I did think probably affected my performance somewhat. The board agreed with this, but did point out that going on from this meeting I should probably actively do something to help decrease how stressed I get. Until the run up to exams I hadn't realised the full extent of stress = migraines, as I hadn't really been stressed so hadn't really got many migraines, but now I agree that I should probably try to do something to decrease my stress levels around exams. The question is, what though? I already try to eat healthily around exams, make sure I get enough sleep and take little breaks when I'm getting stressed. I'm going to see if the study skills department of the uni offer any courses, but other than that, does anyone have any good ideas of any strategies I can try?
The meeting itself wasn't too bad. I fully expected to be grilled and have them rip my mitigation to shreds, but they were actually pretty nice and sympathetic. I submitted mitigation for my chronic migraines. I take medication which helps to decrease how frequently I get migraines, but unfortunately stress is one of the triggers for them and exams and stress go hand in hand. I get stressed because of exams, this causes a migraine which then means that I miss a day's revision which then means I get even more stressed which then causes more migraines, a viscous circle. Consequently I did get several migraines in the run up to, and the night before, exams which I did think probably affected my performance somewhat. The board agreed with this, but did point out that going on from this meeting I should probably actively do something to help decrease how stressed I get. Until the run up to exams I hadn't realised the full extent of stress = migraines, as I hadn't really been stressed so hadn't really got many migraines, but now I agree that I should probably try to do something to decrease my stress levels around exams. The question is, what though? I already try to eat healthily around exams, make sure I get enough sleep and take little breaks when I'm getting stressed. I'm going to see if the study skills department of the uni offer any courses, but other than that, does anyone have any good ideas of any strategies I can try?
Friday 7 June 2013
Mini Rant
I had a GP appointment this morning. This is how it went (as
word for word accurate as I can remember):
Dr: Hello, what can I do for you?
Me: Hi, I’ve come in for my medication review for my
migraines. Additionally, I’ve been having more migraines than normal recently,
although that could be due to stress from exams recently.
Dr: Is that Propranolol you take? (Propranolol is a
beta-blocker commonly used to lower blood pressure, but also used to prevent
migraines)
Me: Yes
Dr: Do you take paracetamol too?
Me: Yes, but it doesn’t have much effect on my migraines.
Dr: Try taking paracetamol when you have a migraine. *Hands
me my repeat prescription for my medications*. Anything else?
Me: Oh, so you think I should carry on with the Propranolol?
Dr: You don’t get any dizziness do you? (medication for
lowering blood pressure can sometimes be too effective and lead to low blood
pressure, which can give dizziness)
Me: No, I’m a Pharmacist though so I know what to look out
for. (I slipped in the Pharmacist card (which I wouldn’t normally do) in the
hope that it might prompt him to engage with me slightly)
Dr: Ugh, Pharmacist’s were the bane of my life in hospital
with their green pen. I don’t know what their obsession with green pen is. *Doctor
leads me to the door and ushers me out*
Me: Ok, goodbye…
I didn’t expect much from the consultation, but I was hoping
to get a doctor’s opinion on whether I should try a different medication for
the migraines, and to at least actually listen to what I was saying. I would
also expect a doctor to find out how frequently I was getting migraines and
perhaps offer some lifestyle advice or recommend a different pain killer, or
prescribe sumatriptan (a common drug to take when a migraine occurs). He asked
me about dizziness, but he didn’t bother to actually check my blood pressure,
despite the fact that the blood pressure machine was sat on the desk less than
10cm away from me. Incidentally, I’ve not actually had my blood pressure
checked by my GP once since I started on the Propranolol.
To then add insult to injury, on my way out I noticed a
plaque hanging in the reception saying “...(name of the GP surgery).. Health
Centre is a certified training centre for ..(my)… Medical School”. So not
only is this doctor providing me with poor patient care, but one day in the
future, he could also be my mentor.
Needless to say, I won’t be following his example for my
OSCEs on Monday. There definitely wasn’t any empathy or ICE in his
consultation!
Tuesday 4 June 2013
Pharmacy and exams
Another reason why I'm glad I'm giving up Pharmacy to do Medicine (if I manage to pass med school that is....):
http://www.which.co.uk/news/2013/05/can-you-trust-your-local-pharmacys-advice-319886/
This report is flawed in many ways (the very small sample numbers, only looking at one source of advice instead of the wide range of services pharmacies offer etc.), but the results do ring true to a certain extent in my personal opinion. There are many excellent pharmacists and pharmacies out there giving an excellent service, but on several occasions I've been a customer in a pharmacy and have been given poor or no advice (when ideally I should have been given counselling considering I was a new patient taking a blood pressure lowering drug (I take it for migraine prophylaxis)), or overheard bad advice being given to other customers. I also know that I went to university with several people who I wouldn't trust to advise me on medical related matters, who are now working as pharmacists (this may be unfair and is only my opinion). Many people don't seem to respect pharmacists as much as they do other health care professionals ("glorified shop keeper"), which whilst unfair, I don't see changing significantly in the foreseeable future, especially with reports like the above.
(Note: I don't feel the same way about hospital pharmacists. Hospital pharmacists do further diplomas and training, and every hospital pharmacist I've ever known has had an excellent knowledge base and regularly prevent unsafe prescribing/make sure the best medication is prescribed to patients in hospitals).
On a different note, my second exam on Friday went better than Thursday's exam, but I still don't think that I've done enough to pass overall. I'm doing a little bit of revision everyday to prepare for resits, whilst also preparing for my OSCE exams next week. We found out the OSCE stations today which we're going to be examined on. Most of them seem ok, but there's a few I'm a bit unsure about. There's going to be one station on ECG which I presume will be to interpret an ECG but I really don't know what to expect from it. I also haven't had that much ECG practice, so I definitely need to do a lot of work for that one. There's also stations on infection control and male anatomy which I'm not too sure of what to expect and a station on mini mental state examination, which I know is quite straightforwards but we've never actually practiced it before! Luckily my boyfriend has agreed to be a practice patient all week (when he's not at work) as practicing on a real person is definitely more effective than just running through the motions by yourself.
http://www.which.co.uk/news/2013/05/can-you-trust-your-local-pharmacys-advice-319886/
This report is flawed in many ways (the very small sample numbers, only looking at one source of advice instead of the wide range of services pharmacies offer etc.), but the results do ring true to a certain extent in my personal opinion. There are many excellent pharmacists and pharmacies out there giving an excellent service, but on several occasions I've been a customer in a pharmacy and have been given poor or no advice (when ideally I should have been given counselling considering I was a new patient taking a blood pressure lowering drug (I take it for migraine prophylaxis)), or overheard bad advice being given to other customers. I also know that I went to university with several people who I wouldn't trust to advise me on medical related matters, who are now working as pharmacists (this may be unfair and is only my opinion). Many people don't seem to respect pharmacists as much as they do other health care professionals ("glorified shop keeper"), which whilst unfair, I don't see changing significantly in the foreseeable future, especially with reports like the above.
(Note: I don't feel the same way about hospital pharmacists. Hospital pharmacists do further diplomas and training, and every hospital pharmacist I've ever known has had an excellent knowledge base and regularly prevent unsafe prescribing/make sure the best medication is prescribed to patients in hospitals).
On a different note, my second exam on Friday went better than Thursday's exam, but I still don't think that I've done enough to pass overall. I'm doing a little bit of revision everyday to prepare for resits, whilst also preparing for my OSCE exams next week. We found out the OSCE stations today which we're going to be examined on. Most of them seem ok, but there's a few I'm a bit unsure about. There's going to be one station on ECG which I presume will be to interpret an ECG but I really don't know what to expect from it. I also haven't had that much ECG practice, so I definitely need to do a lot of work for that one. There's also stations on infection control and male anatomy which I'm not too sure of what to expect and a station on mini mental state examination, which I know is quite straightforwards but we've never actually practiced it before! Luckily my boyfriend has agreed to be a practice patient all week (when he's not at work) as practicing on a real person is definitely more effective than just running through the motions by yourself.
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