Product Description

Highly Commended - BMA Awards 2007
"I inetended to buy this book having used its previous edition on many occasions. Thankfully the BMA must have read my mind and provided me with this truly invaluable resource."

This is highly-praised book contains 90 OSCE 'stations' grouped under the type of skill being tested, but also indexed by body system. The stations all have detailed answers, underlining the nature of the question, the aims of the examiners, and a commentary on how best to answer the question. The questions cover how to take a history from a patient and how to present it to the examiner, communication skills, patient examination, interpretation of data, carrying out some basic practical procedures, and exploring attitudes to certain situations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65782 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Great OSCE preparation
Objective structured clinical examination is now an established form of assessment in many medical schools. The new edition of this established text is therefore going to be welcomed by many students who approach OSCE examinations with fear and dread!

The format is user-friendly and well indexed, making it easy to dip-into whenever one needs to. There are chapters covering all the core skills assessed in OSCEs: history; examination; data interpretation; procedures; communication and attitudes. Each of the topics is pitched at a given level (basic, intermediate or advanced) and for each OSCE station the authors give a task that may form a typical OSCE question. An example of an appropriate response is then given for each task. Many of the stations in the book have text boxes highlighting the core skill being assessed and this provides the reader with a step by step approach to completing the skill successfully. Examples include the interpretation of a chest radiograph, taking an alcohol history, insertion of a urinary catheter. The authors talk you through all the stages, making this not only a useful revision aid for OSCEs but a good companion to have when learning ward-based clinical skills.

The authors are experienced OSCE examiners themselves and provide the reader with a host of useful "top-tips" in approaching the examinations, from exam preparation through to common exam mistakes and how to avoid them! Each station in the book ends with some suggestions in how to gain further practice in that particular skill and this will provide an impetus for many to go out and seek appropriate hands-on clinical exposure.

All of the topics covered in this text are highly relevant to the work undertaken by junior doctors and it will serve well to improve medical students confidence and competence in undertaking a wide variety of medical tasks.

Overall I was highly impressed with this book. It is pitched at just the right level for clinical medical students and as a practical guide to core clinical skills it has succeeded in delivering the goods.

Good but not great
As a final year medic at Manchester, I have been using the previous edition of this book for 2 years now. I recently got hold of this copy and have to say that its not greatly different form the 1st edition.

While most of the important topics are covered, surgical topics are missing (for that you'll have to get Ged Byrne's new "Core Clinical Skills for OSCEs in Surgery.") Furthermore the lack of a mark scheme in some topics does make it less helpful than it could have been - for that I have found the Pastest OSCE books are superior.

However for Manchester students, this and its equivalent surgical book mentioned above are must buys as they written by the heads of the Manchester Medical School (O'Neill is head of the Medical School, Byrne is Dean of South sector and Dorland is Dean of Salford sector). As a result it gives a guide of what the Manchester examiners are looking for.

In summary: this and its surgical counterpart are essential for Manchester students and helpful for students with similar courses. However I think they should be supplemented with the Pastest OSCE books. I know its exensive but there's no reason for a few of you to get together and share them.