INSTRUCTIONS FOR OSLER EXAMINERS IN SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENTS IN AERN & TUBES
Thank you for agreeing to take part in the summative assessments of the junior medicine and surgery firms.
This assessment is designed to test students’ skills of taking a history and examining a patient as well as their ability to integrate their findings, form a differential diagnosis and to summarise this to the examiner.
Structure of exam
The assessment is a total of approximately 1 hour. It is recommended, however, that the student takes a thorough history and examination for most (50 minutes) of this time and only a brief summary is discussed at the end.
Meeting the student
Please meet the student on the ward, introduce yourself, and take them to meet the patient. Please ascertain that they have not met the patient before.
Instructions to be given to the student
Please inform the student that the total length of the exam is approximately 1 hour. Please inform them that you will let them know when 35 minutes have passed and that you will interrupt them after 50 minutes (if they have not already finished),
Instruct the student to 'perform a long case clerking (history and examination) on this patient'. Add that you will be observing them throughout - they will be expecting this. Please make sure that you are present for the duration of the exam.
Students should take a history and perform a thorough examination based:
for their 1st OSLER(November & January): on the systems covered by their particular course. (TUBES – CVS, Respiratory, ENT, Vascular Surgery and AERN – Abdo, Endocrine, Renal and Neurology.)
for their 2nd OSLER (March & May): on the systems covered by both TUBES and AERN (see above).
After 35 minutes inform them that there are 15 minutes left. After 50 minutes, ask them to stop. Ask them then to summarise the case. This is not a viva, the OSLER is designed to test clinical skills (not knowledge per se, which is tested in the written exam).
After a 5-10 minute summary, discussion and feedback, the student is discharged.
Marking
Please use the marksheet attached. Please note that any students classified as “borderline” on today’s exam will be offered a repeat OSLER with a different patient and 2 examiners.
Feedback & Results
Please give the students some constructive feedback regarding their performance in the examination. Do not tell them if they have passed or failed – they will be informed via email from Sue Bamford.