Dear All

Thank you for participating in the session today.

Dr Swaty joined us today and gave an overview of her recent exam experience. Her opinion was Communication is a very important skill to have to get to your aim in the exam.

In RRR we discussed:

• Lond term complications of treatment for malignancy
• Children with Special needs
• Hearing loss in 5 year old

In Clinical Stations we started on Communication scenarios. 15 year old with two episodes of anaphylaxis refuses to carry Epipens – discuss. Dr P was an excellent Role Player. Dr J took the hotseat while Dr T & Dr S had the Examiner hats. All had to observe carefully and comment. Dr J did a very good attempt at the station – considering it was her first occasion in the hotseat. She finished with almost 2 minutes to spare. Dr T noted and commented on some points that she would do different and gave a mark of 6/8. Dr S made observations on Introductions and marked as 5/8. There were some points mentioned by Dr Shishir and AG.

The Learning points are:

• Have plan but only for first 2 minutes: Shishir’s rule
• Rapport building – always talked about but how to build rapport?
• Follow Role player’s agenda and NOT yours
• Do not use medical jargon – if must – explain.
• Guage RP’s prior knowledge / understanding
• Respond to RP’s queries as soon as – else they will keep going in circles
• Do NOT speak in more than 30 sec. bytes
• Check for response from RP.
• DIALOGUE and NOT a MONOLOGUE!
• Summarise at 6 minutes
• Thank RP at the end.
• Listen to the Questions VERY carefully else you will go down the wrong path
• Utilize all the time – if significant time left – likely you have missed a part.

Please visit www.mrcpchonline.org to add your comments or points I may have missed.

Anil Garg