On Wednesday I sat the Stage 1 Assessment for the
London Collaboration and it was one of my most nerve-wracking experiences to
date. This was not because I hadn’t covered enough material (although I
probably didn’t) or because the calculations were too difficult. This was
mainly due to the fact that we had no idea what to expect. There was very
little guidance on the emails sent as to what the paper would look like and it
was the fear of the unknown that made me so uneasy. Being the first year to go
through this process didn’t make matters easier too as we literally had nothing to go by.
I understand that the Thames Valley Assessment on Thursday had a similar layout so I’ve summarised each section below. I have also
included some of the experiences from people who also sat the exams for both The London Collaboration and Thames Valley and
things I would have done in hindsight.
Prioritisation:
So
I left this section till last simply because I knew it would confuse the hell
out of me and it would be smarter to do the more straight forward sections
first. I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer for this but they will be
using this to gain an insight into your approach to problem solving. In the
scenario we had you were a pre reg trainee who had a 26 week appraisal coming
with your mentor. You also had an audit meeting the following Monday, a friend
that needed help with a case study presentation, an outpatient that needs to be
called for their medication and a 2 week community placement to sort out. Oh
and a doctor waiting for information on a patient. This scenario required you
to priorities each task and state whether they were high or low priority with a
reason. There were only about 3 lines to write this on so you had to be really
concise. In these scenarios it is important to consider whether or not there
are any other members of staff free to help. It’s also good to think about whether
there might be a better department to direct questions to. For example if the
doctor wanted to know information regarding medication, does the hospital have
a Medicines Information Department? If it’s a clinical trials prescription, is
there a clinical trials pharmacy? Also you need to remember that you are only
human so putting many things on high priority can exhaust you which could put
patients at risk. Don’t bombard yourself with work and take your time with
these scenarios.
Numeracy:
I did this
section first because I personally find that calculations are easier to do when
your mind isn't worrying about how badly you did in another section or another
question you skipped. This section wasn't too bad. It was more clinical than
anything we did in OSCE calculation stations at Uni. But that was expected.
There were questions related to Creatinine Clearance, formulations switches,
quantity to dispense and strength calculations. These were all quite straight
forward and could be done pretty quickly with the use of a calculator. The only
suggestion I would make here is to make sure you take a look at the answer
sheet. There was a particular way they wanted us to write our answers down and
so it is important that you read the instructions before anything. Also there
are many books on pharmacy calculations and pre reg past papers available. Use
them!
Clinical Assessment:
This
was an interesting station which many disliked. Funnily enough I quite liked
the clinical station and found it to be one of my better stations. This was in
the form of multiple choice questions and contained a few extended matching one
(similar to the pre reg paper). For this station I was afraid that I had
forgotten all my clinical knowledge over the summer and was frantically trying
to memorise my OSCE notes from the previous year. However this was all futile
revision as the questions seemed mainly focused on counselling points of
medication. All I can remember from this section was the antibiotic side
effects and counselling points that formed 5 of the 10 questions in this
section. This isn't because I struggled with them but because I kept hearing
how much people hated those questions because they hadn't revised it. Luckily
for me, counselling on a daily basis in the Outpatient pharmacy where I work
has meant that all those points were already ingrained in my brain. I would
highly recommend getting a part time job in a pharmacy as this reinforces all
the learning at Uni. The extra cash at the end of the month is just a bonus. In
addition to this I worked through a few pre reg papers whenever I got a chance
at work. This was because I didn’t fancy reading lecture note after lecture
note. I had tried that for a day and got bored, so working through old pre reg
papers just helped me see what I knew and taught me what I didn’t. (Plus one of
the questions from the pre reg paper actually came up – written differently of course.
So it works)
Pharmacy in Practice:
This
section actually threw me off. It was filled with questions I had expected to
be asked at the interview stage. There were numerous questions about the Carter
report, the code of ethics, the NHS constitution and the 76 performance
standards for the pre reg year. No one I spoke to had expected it and it came
as a surprise. There were a few other questions on prescription legalities and
CDs but these were the ones that stumped everyone. Moral of the story: Learn
EVERYTHING!!! Even if it means reading hundreds of PJ articles or reading
pharmacy news every morning with breakfast, DO IT!
Overall advice:
- · Manage your time during the exam – the time flies by and before you know it the hour is over. Make sure you leave ample time for each section. If you’rebad at a section leave extra time.
- · Time management also includes your journey time – Aint nobody gonna wait for you!
- · Read the five year forward plan, the Francis report, the Carter report and any other report they release in the next year or so. Even if you read the summary it’s better than nothing.
- · Practice Practice Practice those calculations because you need to be quick with those calculations
And that’s it!
Our
results should be out by Wednesday so whether I passed with flying colours or
failed miserably I shall let y’all know. Stay tuned…
*Special thanks to Zahra who helped compile the tips and experiences!*
S.
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