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Hi guys,
I am currently a 3rd year medic from Italy (graduated from a UK uni before). I was wondering if any of you could recommend any OSCE course/mocks, preferably in London.
We don't really do OSCEs in Italy (sadly) and I have a clinical placement planned for summer in Switzerland so I'd like to get some feedback on my clinical skills from an actual examiner.
Shame that I need to spend money on something a med school should do... hence I'd really appreciate some recommendations from your personal experience. Feel free to message me privately
I am currently a 3rd year medic from Italy (graduated from a UK uni before). I was wondering if any of you could recommend any OSCE course/mocks, preferably in London.
We don't really do OSCEs in Italy (sadly) and I have a clinical placement planned for summer in Switzerland so I'd like to get some feedback on my clinical skills from an actual examiner.
Shame that I need to spend money on something a med school should do... hence I'd really appreciate some recommendations from your personal experience. Feel free to message me privately
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#2
Can’t message you privately because you’re on Anonymous.
Don’t pay for any courses. All they do is teach you how to pass an OSCE: why do you need that when you don’t have OSCE’s at your medical school? History and examination skills you can easily learn by watching YouTube videos of UK medical students and practising on your colleagues. There are plenty of good books out there full of OSCE station mark schemes - follow them to see how well you’re doing. Keep it up a few times a week and you’ll be more than prepared for your placement in Switzerland. If it’s an issue for lots of other UK students at your medical school, maybe you can look into organising teaching sessions to help each other out. I’m aware that things like “OSCE society” exist at other medical schools which also don’t have OSCE’s in their curriculum.
Don’t pay for any courses. All they do is teach you how to pass an OSCE: why do you need that when you don’t have OSCE’s at your medical school? History and examination skills you can easily learn by watching YouTube videos of UK medical students and practising on your colleagues. There are plenty of good books out there full of OSCE station mark schemes - follow them to see how well you’re doing. Keep it up a few times a week and you’ll be more than prepared for your placement in Switzerland. If it’s an issue for lots of other UK students at your medical school, maybe you can look into organising teaching sessions to help each other out. I’m aware that things like “OSCE society” exist at other medical schools which also don’t have OSCE’s in their curriculum.
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#3
Thanks for your insight - the reason why I wanted a course/mock or something of sort, is because its quite difficult to simply follow a dry material. I mean, imagine not having clear OSCE curriculum, no requirement, no clear teaching on clinical skills. For us its not structured at all, its quite saying that some people graduate med schools in italy and cant read an ECG... We just follow specific subjects, we have some clinical placements - but what they teach you or "allow" you to do is limited. That obviously includes all students, so in that case its just very difficult to study together since we all have no idea what we're doing. I think for someone who has OSCEs in med school its difficult to imagine not having them - and yes, you can study for OSCEs by yourself, but it makes all the difference that you know what you'll be examined on, getting feedback, or a sense "how youre performing". That's why, being poor as I am, I don't mind spending something like 80 quid because I do want to have that structure/ get some feedback/ do it in a reality in front of someone. I can't really explain it well, because its quite unimaginable that med school can be so bad at teaching clinical skills, but basically, imagine just having a super dry in-depth theory on literally every possible disease, some clinical placements when you just usually follow someone around and thats it, very little mention on how to diagnose a patient/take history etc. Just to be fair - they usually do let us do some stuff on clinical placements but since students are quite shy and unsure of how to act in front of the pt, most usually end up as a wall support. I hope that explains why I am so keen on doing the course
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#4
Hi, I’m a student at Rome La Sapienza and have the same exact issue. Would love to get touch and discuss this more!
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#5
(Original post by mroudnes)
Thanks for your insight - the reason why I wanted a course/mock or something of sort, is because its quite difficult to simply follow a dry material. I mean, imagine not having clear OSCE curriculum, no requirement, no clear teaching on clinical skills. For us its not structured at all, its quite saying that some people graduate med schools in italy and cant read an ECG... We just follow specific subjects, we have some clinical placements - but what they teach you or "allow" you to do is limited. That obviously includes all students, so in that case its just very difficult to study together since we all have no idea what we're doing. I think for someone who has OSCEs in med school its difficult to imagine not having them - and yes, you can study for OSCEs by yourself, but it makes all the difference that you know what you'll be examined on, getting feedback, or a sense "how youre performing". That's why, being poor as I am, I don't mind spending something like 80 quid because I do want to have that structure/ get some feedback/ do it in a reality in front of someone. I can't really explain it well, because its quite unimaginable that med school can be so bad at teaching clinical skills, but basically, imagine just having a super dry in-depth theory on literally every possible disease, some clinical placements when you just usually follow someone around and thats it, very little mention on how to diagnose a patient/take history etc. Just to be fair - they usually do let us do some stuff on clinical placements but since students are quite shy and unsure of how to act in front of the pt, most usually end up as a wall support. I hope that explains why I am so keen on doing the course
Thanks for your insight - the reason why I wanted a course/mock or something of sort, is because its quite difficult to simply follow a dry material. I mean, imagine not having clear OSCE curriculum, no requirement, no clear teaching on clinical skills. For us its not structured at all, its quite saying that some people graduate med schools in italy and cant read an ECG... We just follow specific subjects, we have some clinical placements - but what they teach you or "allow" you to do is limited. That obviously includes all students, so in that case its just very difficult to study together since we all have no idea what we're doing. I think for someone who has OSCEs in med school its difficult to imagine not having them - and yes, you can study for OSCEs by yourself, but it makes all the difference that you know what you'll be examined on, getting feedback, or a sense "how youre performing". That's why, being poor as I am, I don't mind spending something like 80 quid because I do want to have that structure/ get some feedback/ do it in a reality in front of someone. I can't really explain it well, because its quite unimaginable that med school can be so bad at teaching clinical skills, but basically, imagine just having a super dry in-depth theory on literally every possible disease, some clinical placements when you just usually follow someone around and thats it, very little mention on how to diagnose a patient/take history etc. Just to be fair - they usually do let us do some stuff on clinical placements but since students are quite shy and unsure of how to act in front of the pt, most usually end up as a wall support. I hope that explains why I am so keen on doing the course
One thing I will mention is that you shouldn’t be tolerating laziness from your fellow medical students. If there’s something you aren’t being taught then study together at home. Obviously your clinical placements come with limitations but then you can cover the gaps by discussing it with each other. You can learn a history/examination for yourself and then demonstrate to your colleagues how to do it on each other. Someone else learns another topic, demonstrates and gives everyone a chance to practise and so on. This is how UK medical students practise for OSCE’s and the majority of them will pass without paying for any courses.
But if you’re really determined to pay for a course you don’t need then you’ll have to prepare all the work in advance before you enter the room. If they’re teaching how to pass an OSCE, the assumption is that all the students will be familiar with the work already. Whether that’s from clinical placements or studying at home. It will probably be quite intense like a “crash course” and you’ll find it much harder to keep up if you’re seeing things for the first time.
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