For the coming week, I’m once again in an exam period. As has become almost traditional (see here and here), I’ll be letting you know how I get on each day. The week works out so that I have DIPSEs on Monday, Clinical OSCEs Tuesday, Non-Clinical OSCEs Wednesday, and MCQ/TF/EMI on Friday. I’ll explain all as I go along. So watch out for the first post, about the DIPSEs, tomorrow.

I forgot to post this earlier in the week… The Community Placement, the report about which I was busily writing during ‘My Week‘, has been marked. As everything, it’s marked in three ‘strands’, all of which have to be passed at satisfactory level or better across the year as a whole. My Community Placement marks in each of the strands were: the doctor as a professional, in which I got a Merit; how the doctor approaches practice, in which I obtained a Satisfactory grade; and what the doctor is able to do, in which I gained a Merit.

So overall, I was very pleased with that outcome.

Tonight was the Medics Revue, a common med school tradition whereby the students effectively ridicule the lecturers and other staff in their prescence. This was Durham’s first attempt, entitled ‘Medicine: The Musical’. And it was really very funny. There were only three people performing, and it must have taken them forever to get it all together. It really was excellent, including the Anatomy staff featuring on Blind Date competing for a date with Stefan (Histology Lecturer) by stating which artery they would be (Splenic, Aorta, and Pulmonary, as it happens), our Cardiovascular lecturer as James Bond, a version of West Side Story’s “America” entitled “I want to be in a Business Park”, and a slightly bizarre version of Tenacious D’s “Tribute”. And it raised lots of money for charity, too.

As something of a sidenote, there’s been a link to Amateur Transplants over in the sidebar for a while now, but there’s never really been an occasion to mention them – but as their CD featured in the Medics revue, it seems as good an occasion as any to encourage you to hop over there and buy a copy – it’s only £6, and it’s all in aid of Macmillan Cancer Relief.

I’ve just received an email, from which I have quoted below:

I have been in touch with a variety of staff responsible for the marking of your assignments.

Due to a variety of unforeseen circumstances the results/feedback have been delayed by at least a week. Some results/feedback may not be released until the end of next week (Fri 6th May).

Does this mean that I’m now allowed to say ‘Due to a variety of unforseen circumstances, my availability for exams has been delayed by at least a week.’ Somehow, I doubt it. But what it does mean is that I won’t be getting results from any of this year’s assignments until a week before the exams, and so won’t know my weak points which I need to concentrate on during revision. Helpful.

This weekend has become something of a catch-up weekend, it being the final one I’m spending at uni before the Easter break. Today, I’ve been catching up on my filing for the last five or six weeks. I just thought I’d share that, so far (and I’m by no means nearing completion), I’ve filed over 1,000 pages of notes. By the time I’ve finished, I’ll probably have doubled that. Won’t somebody please think of the rainforest? And, more importantly, won’t somebody please think of the limited capacity of my brain?!

I’ve had a breakdown of my exam results today, question-by-question. I was very happy, because there wasn’t a single question I got nothing on, and I got 100% on two questions.

It seems clear that I won’t be the best doctor to ask about Epidermolysis Bullosa (20% – and I don’t even remember ever hearing about it in my life!), Bacterial Pneumonia (30%), Bacterial blood cultures (20%), Tanzanian Blood Smears (10% – but when am I ever going to go to Tanzania anyway?), fertility (25% – but I did get 50% on infertility, and it would seem more likely that that’s what a doctor would deal with), or kidney transplantation (30%).

But I’m practically an expert on Enterococcus Faecalis outbreaks (80%), Medical Histories (100%), Health Diaries (70%), Undertaking the Community Placement (100%), E.coli 0157 infection (70%), Spermatozoa structure and function (70%), and Sensitivity and Specificity of tests (95%).

Everything else was inbetween… Prostate Cancer (60%), Blood Glucose (50%), Complement (40% – which is good, considering I still don’t really know what it is or what it does), Anaemia (50%), Male Pelvic Anatomy (62.5%), Pelvic anatomy (60%), EBM (41.67%), cervical smears (37.5%), Iron deficiency anaemia (30.77%), Pelvic osteology (62.5%), Anatomy Spotter (55%), and Mammography (35%). We don’t get a breakdown of the MCQ, but I got 61.94% overall on it.

Given that the pass mark is about 50%, I think I did very well.

I’ve got my results from the January exams today. Unfortunately, a general mix-up with the exam papers means that a number of questions had to be taken off the paper, meaning that I only have results in the ‘What’ and ‘How’ strand. (The three strands, all of which must be passed, are ‘What the doctor is able to do’, ‘The doctor as a professional’, and ‘How the doctor approaches practice’)

I’m very pleased to say that I received ‘S’ in both strands – that’s ‘Satisfactory’, which means I passed! Hooray! So I’m very happy.

I’ve received an email today, a precis of which is below:

Dear Students,

A new wine-bar/ Restaurant is being opened in Yarm that will bring incomparable quality and class to the North-East of England. However, we are fully aware that to achieve our goal of creating a bar with the rare
culmination of ambience and style we need to employ the best staff.

We require a batch of young, stylish, loyal individuals who want to work hard and be rewarded accordingly. We are spending a great deal of money to make the venue aesthetically pleasing; thus, we require those who work for us to also be pleasing to the eye. …

This role will only appeal to a certain kind of person (you know who you are); if you are that sort of person then please print and fill out the attached application form and send it to…

At first it made me laugh, but on reflection I cannot believe that this place is stating that it wants only good looking staff! Is this not against some kind of discrimination law?

It was an exhausting day today, probably because I got up earlier than usual and didn’t get a break all day. Headlines: Eight hours sleeping, Seven-and-a-quarter hours working, four hours of TV (including the bits I missed when I dropped off!), and one hour surfing. I’m not in university tomorrow, so I should get a decent lie-in! The details for Tuesday:

0.00 Sleeping
1.00 Sleeping
2.00 Sleeping
3.00 Sleeping
4.00 Sleeping
5.00 Sleeping
6.00 Sleeping
7.00 Showering and Dressing (~20 mins), Breakfast (~15 mins), Making Lunch (~5 mins), Putting Rubbish Out (~5 mins), Driving to Hartlepool Hospital (~15 mins)
8.00 Driving to Hartlepool Hospital (~45 mins), Finding Postgrad Centre (~15 mins)
9.00 Personal and Professional Development Session
10.00 Personal and Professional Development Session
11.00 Personal and Professional Development Session
12.00 Personal and Professional Development Session (~15 mins), Driving to College (~35 mins), Lunch (~ 10 mins)
13.00 Muscles Lecture
14.00 Arterial Supply of Lower Limb Lecture
15.00 Arterial Supply of Lower Limb Lecture
16.00 Arterial Supply of Lower Limb Lecture
17.00 Driving Home (~15 mins), Web Surfing (~45 mins)
18.00 Watching The Simpsons (~30 mins), Eating Tea (~30 mins)
19.00 Watching Channel 4 News
20.00 Watching Dragons’ Den (and briefly falling asleep…)
21.00 Watching Brat Camp
22.00 Watching CSI (~40 mins), Web Surfing (~20 mins)
23.00 Sleeping

I think I must have been tired… But then, it’s a day of rest, so I feel entitled. Eleven hours sleeping, six-and-a-half hours working, two hours watching telly, two hours surfing. The details…

0.00 Web Surfing
1.00 Web Surfing (~15 mins), Sleeping (~45 mins)
2.00 Sleeping
3.00 Sleeping
4.00 Sleeping
5.00 Sleeping
6.00 Sleeping
7.00 Sleeping
8.00 Sleeping
9.00 Sleeping
10.00 Sleeping
11.00 Sleeping
12.00 Eating Breakfast (~25 mins), Watching The Politics Show (~15 mins), Sorting Washing (~5 mins), Web Surfing (~15 mins)
13.00 Replying to Emails (~15 mins), Showering and Dressing (~15 mins), Filling Car Screenwash (~15 mins), Washing Up (~15 mins)
14.00 Writing Community Placement Report
15.00 Writing Community Placement Report
16.00 Writing Community Placement Report
17.00 Writing Community Placement Report
18.00 Writing Community Placement Report (~40 mins), Eating Tea and Watching CSI (~20 mins)
19.00 Writing Community Placement Report
20.00 Writing Community Placement Report
21.00 Watching The Bachelor
22.00 Watching Two Pints…. (~30 mins), Web Surfing (~30 mins)
23.00 Sleeping