The Guide
The start of your clinicals are all about 4 things:
1.Taking focused and complete histories.
2.Learning the main clinical examinations.
3.Developing a diagnostic process/framework to arrive at the most likely diagnosis and provide sensible differentials
4.Knowing the basic management for the common pathologies and emergencies.
Click here for the video.
In order to help you achieve these goals, this is a suggested stepwise approach for you to follow at the beginning of your clinicals:
1. Get proficient at histories and clinical examinations (cardio, abdo, resp, neuro & GALS). I recommend Geeky Medics, which is a great resource for learning the clinical examinations and histories. Use their written guides and videos to help you learn. Practice what you’ve learnt and develop good patient manner by taking a history and carrying out a head to toe examination of at least 1 patient a day. Remember to present to a doctor at the end to get feedback.
2. Get used to the clinical setting by attending ward rounds (WR) and clinics. Chat to the FY doctors, nurses, health care assistants and ask plenty of questions. Get used to working in a team.
3. Develop a framework for diagnostic reasoning. I’d recommend reading Oxford Cases in Medicine and Surgery (the red & white one, not the little Oxford Handbook) & watching Osmosis videos on clinical reasoning. Osmosis is a great website for visual learners and the videos are so easy to watch with great animations, well narrated and above all simple, clear and comprehensive.
4. Learn about conditions you come across in the clinical setting, as well as the conditions you read in Oxford cases. I recommend Osmosis for learning pathology, as well as the textbook feature of PassMedicine.
5.Get used to the style of exams you get in clinicals; often single best answer (SBA). So, start using PassMedicine as early as possible, both the textbook feature and SBA questions. PassMedicine is a great site containing a textbook feature which summarises the “no BS, need to know” info and has a huge bank of questions to test you, with clever algorithms to make sure you retain what you learn and that you learn from your mistakes.
Click here for the video.
