Exam Season

Final exams have begun once again at CCNM. The school is filled with students struggling to remember that last detail about that one thing they missed in class, and it's definitely much quieter.
My first exam was this morning, and yes, it was the OSCEs. It was a bit of a nerve racking experience, but it definitely went well. My exam was at 8:56 (on the dot, everything has to be very structured and specific!), so we had to meet as a group on the second floor 20 minutes early. Dr. Roberts explained the process to us one more time, and then filed down to the clinic one by one, with our lab coats, medical equipment, and our clipboards. Dr. Pachkovskaja met us in the clinic and provided us with a last minute pump-up speech, telling us all to smile and be excited. Then we were sent off to our rooms, of course mine had to be around the corner and waste a bit of my prep time. We were then given 90s to read our case stem and write down any notes on our clipboard. Our patient had an earache, which is an interesting complaint because it kind of jumps all over with the types of exams you need to do, but it's definitely a little less intensive than something like cough or hypertension. I walked in the room and my evaluator was actually my resident from clinic 2, Dr. Irons, and the standardized patient was a fourth year I knew from unity summit. Needless to say this didn't really calm my nerves at all. I thankfully remembered to wash my hands right away and introduce myself to the patient, getting consent, and then got started on my exams. For some reason I started taking pulse without giving him the thermometer first, but I recovered and got vitals done pretty quickly. After that I kind of jumped all over the place, not really following my previously set up script, I think in the moment of anxiety I was forgetting some things and just went with what I remembered and what I had written down. I did pretty well I think, getting through all the exams, except for some silly reason I forgot to check his sinuses (I checked his nose why wouldn't I do sinuses!). The bell rang at 20 minutes and I was given the post-encounter probe (like a little quiz), it was pretty easy just 3 questions, and then the next bell rang and it was over. I got out of the room and found my classmates all happy and smiling, the anxiety drained from our bodies and left in the exam rooms.

OSCE 1, you were quite the challenge, especially to prepare for, but we took you down. Now, on to the next 7 exams I have! (oh clinical medicine and microbiology, I can't wait until you're over on Thursday).


As a quick side note, I wanted to just comment on the 4th year holiday play that I had the pleasure of seeing on Thursday night. Their theme was Frozen at CCNM, and it was just fantastic. They did a musical adventure with lots of inside jokes about CCNM, and lots of really great Disney songs adapted to fit the play. The words were changed to include CCNM jokes, but they played a lot of my favourites, like "A Whole New World," "Hakuna Matata," and "Be a Man." Of course they also did "Let it Go," a bit of an overrated song but it was still really great. The whole experience got me really excited about my own 4th year holiday play, something that I definitely want to be involved in. After exams are over I think I'm going to start seeing who will be interested in being a part of it; of course it's 2 years away, but this one was really fantastic so I think the earlier we start the better we can be. I just love musicals!

Some of the stars of the play. They really did a great job setting an atmosphere
considering it was all done in the Lecture Theatre at CCNM

MOSCEs!

I finally got to posting this a couple days late, but this Tuesday was the infamous MOSCEs, or Mock OSCEs. OSCE stands for objective structured clinical examination. Quite a mouthful, but basically it is a standard examination that I think most health professional schools have. In order to prove that you are competent to enter the clinic as an intern and work with actual patients, you need to pass these tests. They are a little bit scary because you have a limited time to get a lot done, but that's why it's really great that the academic reps set up an event like the MOSCEs.

As a second year in first semester, OSCE 1 involves just doing relevant physical exams for a given patient case. So you're given a patient case, for example someone coming in with a cough, and then you have 20 minutes to do every physical exam that is relevant. Did I mention that you need to speak out loud saying everything that you see hear and feel (kind of difficult when wearing a stethoscope!). Oh and you need to say an abnormal finding for every test you do that you could've seen or heard, and what disease/disorder that could indicate. In a way it's actually pretty cool though because we get standardized patients and we'll be doing the test in the clinic, so it will be almost like a real patient interaction. The MOSCEs were just done in some of the classrooms, but it was nice because we had 3rd and 4th year students evaluating and timing us, so it really brought the stress on. I've been prepping a lot for this test and fortunately the MOSCEs went really well and it looks like I'm going to be okay, though I'll definitely need to do a lot more studying before exams start, a week from Monday. Only 8 exams this time around (I think it was 9 last fall?). Back to studying!

Extra Men's Health Week Note

I know Men's Health Week is over (and it was a great week with lots of fun discussion), but here's a quick post I wanted to make last week, and of course forgot in the midst of tons of work.

Naturopathy is all about proactive medicine that empowers patients to help themselves, and one thing I think would be great for males to do once they are around 20, and especially between the ages of 20-39 is a testicular cancer exam. This exam is incredibly easy and doesn't take a very long time, and it definitely worth your time to do. Here is a quick video describing the process for the exam. You can do it in the shower quite easily, and I'd say doing it at least once a month or so would be very beneficial. You will have a good idea of what is normal, and be able to notice any abnormal changes in your testicles at a much earlier stage. Keep in mind that not all abnormal masses on the testicles are cancerous, but it is always better to find a problem at an early stage. Be proactive and help support your good male reproductive health!

- On a side note, I don't want to leave out the women, and I do think it is important for women to do self breast exams on a monthly basis as well, so here is a video for that as well.