Big, big relief! So happy that's over!

Just wondering if I can bump this up again to ask for prayer for my final (hopefully) exam for the year. It's an OSCE, and mine is tomorrow afternoon.

An OSCE is basically where you have different stations. You'll be sent to a room, given a paragraph to read (e.g. "This patient presents with chest pain and shortness of breath. Take a focused history." or "Perform an abdominal examination on this patient.") and you have a certain amount of time allotted to do so. I've only ever done one of these before - and that was a history only. I've never done a full afternoon of them. I'm a bit scared (and hoping my physical examination skills are up to scratch!). If you could pray that the stations, standardised patients and examiners are kind to me that would be great. Also that I don't lose it during a station or partway through the exam.

Passing it first go is important to me - I feel like I need a confidence boost and I also need a break from uni. If I flunk it, I need to go back in "holidays" to sit a week of remedial sessions with another exam at the end of it. And I don't want that sort of pressure to pass the second time, nor do I want to repeat all of this year again. (Yet again, all-or-nothing exams...)

Yes, I'll pray for that. It sounds like a really interesting exam - I'm quite jealous in a weird little way! I can understand how it could be really stressful though, so I hope you manage to stay clear-headed and quick-thinking for it.

I'll be praying Kim...

Ooo... we did those type of tests in our EMT class. I'll be praying for you, but don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll do fine!

Thanks guys. It's this afternoon. I'm freaking out because there are so many different exams and possibilities. And there are some written stations and I can't find my ECG ruler! It's in a pocket of a specific notebook which I can't locate. I looked for it for a bit but I just started crying and flipping out even more so I'm just going to leave it. Back to some last minute revision. I am so ready for this to be over!

= me right now.

(Don't worry. This happens to me every exam I sit. Just a later onset this time maybe...)

oh Kim I'm praying!!!! Here is a hg You'll do fine girl! Just relax when you come to each station and go slowly...I'm great at rushing things like this and missing important info.....Have a scripture or song in your head that you can dwell upon.

^^ Good plan. Just take things slowly and make sure you don't do/say anything until you have thought about it. Even in a rushed hospital scenario, I reckon it must be better to delay a little than to make a major error. I'll be thinking about you today!

Thanks guys - I didn't see your messages before the exam, but thankyou. They have "guides" which take us around and are actually really helpful. I lost it after my second station (thankfully a "rest" station was my third) and one of the guides sat and talked with me about other stuff. After that, I got through without any more "full" tears.

It went okay - the physical examination stations went better than I thought. Computer based questions went about the same, and the history stations went a bit worse than I thought.... some character presented with a sudden faint - so I went through a full neurological history and got nothing. They let me go for a bit then they asked for differential diagnoses, so I gave them (and then why his story probably didn't fit with them). The examiner then showed me "his" ECG... and I'd missed the cardiac questions! Every single one of them... Stress I guess. Anyway, as soon as I'd seen the ECG I could see and explain the problem as to why he fainted - hopefully that gets me some marks. There was another station I know I mucked up too. Oh, and I got my left and right confused with surface markings on another. Stuff I know, but just under stress you get muddled.

Anyway, hope it was enough. I'll find out Friday the 4th December. If it wasn't enough, I'll go back for the week after that to do extra sessions and another exam. I think it's more likely it was enough than not enough though.

Oh, and for the record I didn't even miss the ECG ruler. Haha. *sigh*

Aww, glad you coped and hope that it was indeed enough to get you through without any problems at all. It sounds such an interesting exam...*doctor envy comes upon me*

Doctor envy after my sorry story? I guess it is an interesting exam, and we do have a bit of an "interestingly" set up course and assessment methods. The exam was a lot more confronting than writing stuff out. But lack of clarity and rambling on my part meant leaving the room with the examiner thinking I thought the left lung had 3 lobes instead of 2. Not really my finest moment. Such a silly mistake. It wasn't until after 1/3 of the exam was over that I realised why the examiner was looking at me so strangely when I was rambling about that.

I'm so used to swapping my left and right when examining people. Only I forgot that the patient had their back to me - so their left was my left, not their right! At least I think that's what happened. Who knows what my brain twisted, really - because that's common, easy knowledge. I hope they attribute that to stress. Even so, it's not a good impression. Anyway, must stop thinking about it now.

One week of peace. And sleep. Although it's 5-something in the morning here - I woke up at about 4:30 and can't get back to sleep. Apparently going on the internet 'helps' *cough cough*.

Once again, thanks guys - and I'll keep you posted.

Glad it's over and seems to have gone ok!

[quote="kim"]Doctor envy after my sorry story?/quote]

Yeah... Seriously, if everything in archaeology goes upside-down after this year (and without a good deal of prayer and trust, there's a good chance that it may do), then I am considering retraining in medicine. It's only an idea at the moment, but it's the only other thing in the world that I want to do that isn't archaeology.

Awww, I hope they can tell what is nerves and make allowance for that. Exams are so horrid and stressful when they involve anything more complex than sitting at a table with a bit of paper and a pen!

Ah, that's cool. I hope my stories haven't put you off.

I see the people waiting to interview at my school - this year I wanted to tell them: "You're mad! Run away while you still have a chance!" But at the same time, I don't really mean that. Med is really cool. Except the exams, which make me a bit miserable. Haha.