over you

It's over. I defeated you. 

I managed to slay you by achieving perfection in multiple stations. Alhamdulillah, again another miracle from Allah has been bestowed upon me and I am ever so thankful for He'd given me a happy ending from this long arduous journey. 

"You just remember who the enemy is"

Statistics

Now, I'm going to talk about the double OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) that I faced in April 2013. Firstly, let me just tell you about the statistics for #FebFinals:

91 out of 332 Final Year students failed the OSCEs

It's definitely a huge no of failures. So if you're one of those who failed, you shouldn't be too scared cause almost a third of the year failed. Hence, the failure rate of Nottingham Medical School for 2014 is 27.41%.

70 failed OSCE1 and 41 failed OSCE2. So yeah, still a huge no for both.

But if you failed both (like I did), you're one of the Top 20. Doesn't sound that many now, does it? And because 20 is a smaller number and knowing that I'm facing double OSCEs, the odds were not in my favour. I woke up everyday during this difficult period realising that I'm one of the 20 who have a higher chance of being eliminated.

This is double OSCEs okay! It's like facing double elimination challenge on Masterchef Australia. 

The Double Elimination Challenge

Alhamdulillah, this was the timetable..

I had a day between the 2 OSCEs. Lama okay tak dapat gap between OSCEs, huhu.

OSCE 1

12 stations of 6 mins each 
(Allowed to fail 2 stations only regardless of your marks)

In Feb, I failed 3 stations, hence an overall fail.

In Apr, I put down 4 stations as the ones I'm worried about:

1. Cardio - The examiner was asking me about systole/diastole and I was confused but before the time ran out, I shushed him and said in the most confident way about what happens in systole and he nodded. Result: PASS

Source: Click here

2. Prescribe IV fluids - The wild card station from last year which made a lot of my senior colleagues questioning what they were supposed to do in the station. Now I know how it felt like. I was not even sure of what I was supposed to do. Result: PASS with a borderline mark

3. Set up IV infusion - The examiner was one of my fav Teaching Fellows. But since she let me struggled to find the cap at the end of the IV tube for 2 mins, she's out of my fav list. Didn't complete it at all. Result: FAIL

Source: Click here

4. Cervical spine - Another wild card station from previous year. I knew what I had to do. and believed that my examination was flawless. It was C6 but apparently, the examiner didn't even know what C6 does. Seriously, dia tak tau C6 is elbow flexion pastu boleh jd examiner. Corrupt sungguh. Panas aku dengan examiner ni. I looked at my marksheet and knew that I didn't get full marks for most items. Yelah, dah knowledge si mamat examiner ni pon sangat questionable. Kalau tak tau C6, gi masuk balik medschool la wei! Haha. Result: FAIL

So yeah, the no of stations that I'm worried about was 4 which is similar to my first attempt in Feb but alhamdulillah, since I only failed 2 stations, I passed! Not going to meet any more slackers iA.

They weren't all bad stations. Let's talk about the things that gave me hope..

1. Radiology - I started with Radiology as my 1st station AGAIN! How ironic is that?! And who's the examiner? My funny, handsome and awesome Radiology consultant. I showed him that I can talk about X-rays like water gushing out of my mouth, lol.

Source: Click here

2.  Abdominal - It was okay but what I liked about the station was I managed to say "Ultrasound scan" which was the correct answer just before the bell rang and the examiner gave me a thumbs up :D

Source: Click here

3. SBAR Phone call - It was the station that I failed in Feb. But this time, it was whole a lot different. There was an ECG and a confusing set of notes but hey, I showed the examiner that I know my stuff and he said "Take care" before he said goodbye. I redeemed myself :)

Source: Click here

4. Acute - Another station that I failed in Feb. The reason for failing it was because the examiner didn't take note of my verbalisations. This time around, I said everything clearly, slowly and looked into the examiner's face with eyes wide open. Definitely redeemed myself :D I lost 2 marks probably because I didn't mention the manikin had a gender reassignment (the manikin had breasts and external male genitalia).

Source: Click here

OSCE 2

5 stations of 15 minutes each
(Allowed to fail 1 station only regardless of your marks)

This was the one I was worried more because last time, I failed 4 stations, lol but to be fair, they were mostly borderline failures and the examiners were being strict. But this time, I rose to the occasion alhamdulillah.

1. Medicine - It was a smooth sailing station though I was unsure about the dose of morphine but I confidently diagnosed pneumothorax and managed the patient well; PLUS, showing some empathy when she cannot go to Spain. It's unfortunate that she won't be flying to Spain but I passed with flying colours.

Source: Click here

2. Surgery (chronic history) - Station ni pening sikit. Tak tau apa kena buat. Tanya sikit je, tetiba dapat markah. Hahaha. But I showed the examiner my skill of writing on the piece of paper without having to look at it and hence, I was able to maintain eye contact with the patient throughout. I think that was my saving grace, alhamdulillah.

3. Primary Care - The wild card station, I put it down as a clear pass in Feb but it turned out to be a huge failure. This time, I included a summary and suddenly, I passed?! Apa2 je la, alhamdulillah pass.

4. Prescribing - I got Chris Love :O A fav teacher among the medical students, he's my pharmaceutical hero, haha. In Feb, I thought I got 100% but nope, I only got a 1st. This time, although the drugs were different; I showed Chris Love that his teaching has made me an excellent student, biiznillah.

Source: Click here

5. Musculoskeletal - It's a shoulder problem. The examiner was a Teaching Fellow from Lincoln whom I quite like. And what I like about the station was that before the time ended, he already completed marking my sheet and said, "There's nothing more to be marked.. I would've told you if there's anything else to be done". So I put that station down as a clear pass.

Source: Click here

Overall, I passed all 5 alhamdulillah. The examiners were nice and non-slacking :)

During this difficult period, I didn't believe in myself at all. And not having faith in oneself was really difficult. But I have faith in Allah and I believe that's what has helped me through the craziness of OSCEs: All Stars.

I believe that only Allah can give me a PASS, a graduation, send me to Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and only He can make me a doctor this year.

Alhamdulillah 'ala kulli hal, for everything that has happened...