Clinical Skills for OSCEs PDF

Preface to the Second Edition

This second edition of Clinical Skills for OSCEs (CSFO) has been prompted both by the success of the first edition, which is currently being translated into Japanese, and by the many suggestions for improvement received both from medical students and junior doctors who unexpectedly found use for the book as a bedside vade mecum over the past three years.

During these three years I reluctantly but incontrovertibly transformed from being a medical student to being a junior doctor, and at such a distance no longer feel best qualified to teach on medical school OSCEs. For this reason, I asked an eager, brighteyed and bushy-tailed final year medical student, Kuldip Birdi, to join me in the preparation of this second edition.

Thanks to Kuldip, all the best features of the first edition have been retained: student authored, exam focused, and up to date. Although considerable background information has been added to many of the stations, the text retains the pithiness and clarity that has made it easy to learn and memorise, or quickly refer back to in the heat of a busy on-call. Learning and memorisation have also been supported by a significant increase in the number of diagrams, and greater use of tables and charts. Last but not least, over 20 previously unseen stations, including stations on arterial blood gas sampling and interpretation, blood transfusion, and abdominal X-ray interpretation, have been added to the original 90 stations, confirming CSFO as one of the most comprehensive clinical skills handbooks available to medical students and junior doctors.