All entries for Tuesday 07 February 2017

First feedback then feedback some more!

With just one week left of my first senior specialty placement, my time in general practice is almost over. I can’t believe it’s only been 5 weeks, Christmas holidays seem like a lifetime ago! I’ve really enjoyed my placement in general practice and am so pleased by how much I have improved. In my first few weeks I wasn’t sure about even my history or examination and now I am able to conduct an entire consultation and deliver the management plan. I’ve been able to tell patients that they don’t need antibiotics or the scan they were expecting and have been able to explain why to ensure that patients are happy with the plan going forwards. In the past week myself and my clinical partner have even been conducting our own independent consultations. Conducting a consultation from start to finish but without the supervision of the GP is really nerve-wracking. Even if it’s a relatively simple problem it feels strange to not have the safety net of the GP’s presence to check you are doing the right thing! It’s also strange as in most other areas of medicine we are a long way off from independently manging patients, been given that responsibility in GP is a privilege and a great learning experience.

I’m sure I wouldn’t have improved as much over the course of my placement without excellent feedback from both my tutors and my clinical partner. As we often see similar cases you have the opportunity to improve your performance, ask the questions you forgot last time and improve your examination technique. Another great source of feedback are the activities during our GP academic days. We video some of our consultations and then discuss them in small groups, critically analysing our own performance and our colleagues. This sounds really cringe worthy, and while it takes a while to get used to how your voice really sounds on camera, it is really helpful to identify what you did well in a consultation and also where you can improve. We also get to use SIM patients (actors) to practice difficult consultation scenarios such as breaking bad news and multiple problem consultations. In our small groups we all get the chance to practice and receive feedback on our performance. This is also quite scary at first but it’s so helpful to both give and receive feedback. It makes you start to look at your consultation skills in an analytical way which again helps you improve.

In our last week of our placement we will be conducting a finals style OSLER exam. This is where we conduct a consultation under exam conditions and receive a grade on our performance, just like in finals! I’m really nervous as taking a quick and efficient history isn’t my strong point but it will be helpful to know where I am at the start of our speciality placements. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Joanne

Luke Pemberton : 07 Feb 2017 15:08 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem