OSCEs for Medical and Surgical Finals PDF

PREFACE

The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is increasingly replacing the traditional long-case, short-case and viva-based clinical finals. Although OSCE style finals are fairer than the traditional style of clinical finals, they are not a perfect assessment of competence. Diligent students, who have acquired the necessary knowledge and skills to qualify as doctors, do occasionally fail OSCE based finals. As for all examinations, exam technique has a great deal to do with success, and OSCEs have a large element of performance to them – a fact that, unfortunately, we learned through personal experience. As well as working hard, it is, therefore, also necessary to work smart for the final OSCE, and put on the performance the examiners are looking for.

Many clinical teachers have sat more traditional finals and may have little experience of OSCEs. There is still also an absence on the bookshelves of a user-friendly final OSCE revision guide of the form that exists for other types of clinical exams. This book is therefore a compact revision aid for final OSCEs, providing students with tips about how to play the OSCE game and win. It represents our combined knowledge in a format that we would have benefited from whilst preparing for our own finals. We hope it proves to be a useful revision aid, and that it allows more deserving medical students to celebrate qualifying as doctors on results day.

Remember, don't just work hard – work smart!