Summary: What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do

I’m not going to lie to you but this is a rather bad situation

It usually means a few things

• You have forgotten the knowledge of a particular topic
• You do not have the insight as to what is happening – either cannot identify the problem with the patient, or what the station wants you to demonstrate

You see, the OSCE is a good opportunity for the university to examine you holistically

It is designed to examine a range of skills including history, examination, counselling, and most importantly being SAFE and have systems in place

Good news is, there are many cases where students don’t know what they are doing and they come out passing that station

We have asked many of these students and gathered some common themes and tactics that they refer to

• Read the trigger again and address each task as best possible
• Look carefully in the trigger to see if there are any hints as to what the station wants from you
• Refer back to your framework
• Talk through your thought processes – showing the examiner what you are thinking, your SAFE thought processes
• Always call for help and be safe

PSYCHOSOCIALEDUFUSN – is there anything else that you could do from this framework?