Clinical Skills for OSCEs
In OSCEs (Objective
Structured Clinical Examination. OSCES), clinical skills are generally tested
at two levels of competence.
For junior medical
students, OSCEs test the ability to take a history, perform clinical
examination of a region or system or communicate with a patient or relative.
The student is judged on the ability to take a history, perform a clinical
examination or communicate, diagnostic capability is not tested.
For senior medical
students and for doctors attempting postgraduate examinations, the ability to
take a history, perform a clinical examination and the ability to
communicate are tested together with the ability to reach a diagnosis.
When preparing for OSCEs,
one should first learn how to take a history, perform a clinical examination
correctly and how to communicate. It is preferable to have an understanding of
why one does any technique, as this will be an enormous help to the learning
process. Next it is essential to learn the correct methods of history taking,
physical examination and communication.
After one has mastered
the techniques it is important to proceed to the next stage of learning how to
make a diagnosis and how to plan investigations, management and explanation in
order to proceed to the next level of clinical skill.
Learning Clinical Skills
There is no shortcut in
learning clinical skills. Repetition is the only way to master these skills.
Begin by reading the
preface of ACES for PACES. This will give you an insight into way in which one
should approach the study of clinical skills
Next read chapter 1 of
ACES for PACES this will enable you to understand how to approach examinations
and how one should study for them.
After this read chapters
2 to 7 of ACES for PACES. This will enable you to understand why you do what
you do when practising clinical methods.
You should not proceed to
learning clinical method in relation to the various systems of the body until
you have read the preface of the book and chapters 2 to 7
Once you have gone
through the above thoroughly, proceed to learn how to take a history and
examine the different systems by reading the relevant chapter in ACES for
PACES
Once you have mastered
the methods begin to start analysing cases using the hypothetico-deductive
method (" follow the elephant's footsteps")
Read the section on
lesions of the relevant systems and familiarise yourself with the lesions that
you are likely to come across in examinations and in day-to-day practice.
Read the section on
findings in relation to each system and learn the causes of the various
clinical features that you may come across during history taking and
examination.
Finally learn how to plan
investigations, management and explanation by reading chapter 18 of ACES for
PACES
Practice what
you learn and read again to reinforce the learning process.
Examples of OSCES ( OSCEs)
The clinical skills required for OSCES OSCEs) are no different from the
skills required for PACES
They are the ability to take a good history, the ability to carry out a
thorough physical examination and the ability to communicate.
ACES for PACES will help you to learn the principles and the methods of
history taking and physical examination and also help you learn the symptoms
and signs that you may encounter and the causes of these symptoms and signs.
It will also help you learn the principles and practice of communication.
We have include some examples of clinical OSCE stations and how they should
be approached so that one may maximise the marks one may obtain at the
examination
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