All entries for Tuesday 13 August 2019

# NOF, #cutebabies

Last weekend I took part in the second year MOSCE day. A MOSCE is the same thing as an OSCE, but a mock/practice version. Second year is quickly coming to an end, with only 5 weeks left until our end of second year exams, one aspect of which is our OSCE (or clinical examinations). The MOSCE was kindly set up and run by current third years, and was set up like an actual mock-exam, where we rotated around various stations. In these we did various clinical skills, for example a history-taking for chest pain and then interpretation of an ECG.

In our first year OSCEs last year we would have 10 minutes to conduct a clinical examination or history (so one station would be 10 minutes taking a chest pain history). This year, however, we only have 7 minutes and we are expected to complete multiple tasks in that time (so it can be a short history, an examination and interpreting a test result all in one station). These are much closer to how we will actually be working as doctors, but that doesn’t make it any less daunting. There is a real time pressure to complete the various tasks in the time – its almost like a quiz show where the prize isn’t a holiday in Hawaii, it’s a step in the road to a medical degree!

On Monday I had my last labour shift for this year. We’ve had three labour shifts across this block and I have been lucky enough to see a variety of different births (including caesareans, natural births, forceps deliveries). I’ve been really lucky to have the chance to see so much, and I feel as though I’ve seen a good variety of cases to provide a good grounding for more detailed training on Obs & Gynaecology next year. I feel hugely privileged to have been present at these births and a very small part of seeing these babies into the wide world. Nothing beats the blues like seeing a cute baby!

Today I attended Fracture clinic with my Orthopaedic consultant. When I started this block and found out my consultant was an Orthopaedic surgeon, I was dreading having to spend time in Orthopaedics as so far on the course I really hadn’t enjoyed it at all. For whatever reason, I just didn’t find bones, tendons or muscles (the remit of Orthopaedics) interesting in the slightest. However….I have really enjoyed my time this block! This has surprised me (and probably everyone around me), but we’ve done some cool things and seen some complicated fractures and bone injuries. I am really drawn specifically to the Trauma aspect of Orthopaedics (so broken bones and car accidents etc), and look forward to hopefully spending more time in fracture clinic and in theatre soon.

Medicine sometimes feels like another language, so here is one abbreviation to help demystify things slightly. Your femur is your thigh bone, and at the top there’s a narrow area we call this the neck. In patients with osteoporosis (brittle bones), this neck is a weak area which can break with falls and accidents. For whatever reason, a fracture is written as a hashtag (#), so a fractured neck of femur is called a # Neck of Femur (#NOF for short).

Lucinda Sidbury : 13 Aug 2019 09:24 |  Tags: Gem Graduate-Entry Jordan Mbchb Medicine Student University Warwick Wms |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem