Saturday, June 28, 2008

Near-Fail Experience

Gynae clinical exam wuz quite bad on Thurs. Couldnt get a proper history from patient, confused her with too detailed questioning, but she had so many symptoms that i had to filter out the really significant ones. She was a 48 year-old who had a thyroid problem, a fibroid and presented with a mysterious cyclical bleeding with dysmenorrhea. Menses irregular, sumtimes 3 days, sumtimes 2 weeks, i suspected the 3 days wuz intermenstrual bleeding.

Spent alot of time clerking, abt 30mins, left onli 10mins to examine. No chaperone, everyone left for CME, super-panicked, luckily got juniorz next door safe us 3 guys. Now have to belanja them makan...

Dem shocked, last min Dr.Z couldnt make it, ended up having Dr.VS. From someone who gave quite good grades, to someone who failed u cuz u didnt palpate liver and spleen in obs case. Presented history dem kelam-kabut. I reported no findings on examination, he asked me to palpate the abdomen again, still i didnt feel anythin. He palpated, then took my hand and placed it on the suprapubic area. Crap, got mass....

I knew he wuz goin to fail me for missing de fibroid, but i kept my spirit up and din give up under the questionin. Later in the afternoon, i timidly asked him whether i had failed. He said he wuz goin to fail me for missin such an important finding, but reconsidered when he considered how complex the case wuz and i didnt miss the thyroid findings.


Dr.Vs then told me the 4 mistakes that lecturers will fail students for:

1. A student killed the patient bcuz of carelessness.

2. A student lied.

3. A student displayed an attitude problem (getting cocky with lecturers, or rude to patients).

4. A student kept talking nonsense.

Im sure we know friends and batchmates who've (perhaps unknowingly) commited these mistakes. Ah, now we now the 4 cardinal "sins" to avoid when goin for a viva or clinical exam!

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