Pharmacy OSCEs: A revision guide

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N1 - Prescribing medicines to a patient remains the most common intervention made by the National Health Service (www.england.nhs.uk).

Most medications are prescribed according to actual body weight (mg/Kg) but beware of hydrophilic medications that require dosing via ideal body weight, such as gentamicin. During sexual intercourse, how difficult was it to maintain your erection to completion of intercourse? a b c Amin, Zubair; Eng, Khoo Hoon (2009). Basics in Medical Education (2ed.). WORLD SCIENTIFIC. doi: 10.1142/7044. ISBN 978-981-283-538-3.

As future pharmacists, it is important that we develop our communication skills. This includes verbal and non-verbal communication. During our pharmacy degree, we have classes and exams to practise and see where we can improve. Whether working in a hospital, community, GP, or practising in class, how we communicate helps us to properly consult. It also affects the trust that patients and other healthcare providers have in us. 

Alprostadil also comes in a topical cream and intraurethral application (MUSE) formulation which can be applied regularly by the patient at home prior to sexual intercourse. Prescriptions represent a request from one healthcare professional to another to administer or supply medication to or for a patient. Some medications do not require a prescription as they are considered safe enough for patients to use without professional supervision and these are legally classified as general sale list medications (GSL). Medications that are considered less safe and require supervision by healthcare professionals are classified as prescription only medications, referred to as POMs and can only be used under the supervision of a prescribing healthcare professional. Anything that is not a GSL or POM is classified as a pharmacy medication or P medicine, which is only available under the supervision of a pharmacist. Okay, so we’ve discussed your medication which included [two inhalers, your medication for anxiety, pain, diabetes, epilepsy and the vitamins you buy over the counter]. The plan is to reduce your diazepam by one tablet each day and I’m going to call you in two weeks to see how you feel that is going and then review everything else again at your usual review appointment with the GP surgery.”

Medicines are crucial for maintaining health, preventing illness, managing chronic conditions and treating acute diseases. Where medicines are not used optimally, patients can end up either not getting the intended benefit or, at worst, suffering adverse effects and in some cases being admitted to hospital. You might also be interested in our OSCE Flashcard Collection which contains over 2000 flashcards that cover clinical examination, procedures, communication skills and data interpretation. Explore the patient’s social context to clarify if they have any support at home who could assist with the administration of specific medications if the patient is unable to do this.De Boer MK, Castelein S, Wiersma D, Schoevers RA, Knegtering H. The facts about sexual (dys)function in schizophrenia: An overview of clinically relevant findings. Schizophr Bull. 2015;41(3):674–86. This should include the date that the prescription was issued by the professional. This may be different from the date that the prescription should be started and if the prescription is to begin on a specified date this information should be included under the dose or instruction section of the prescription. There are, however, criticisms that the OSCE stations can never be truly standardized and objective in the same way as a written exam. It has been known for different patients / actors to afford more assistance, and for different marking criteria to be applied. Finally, it is not uncommon at certain institutions for members of teaching staff be known to students (and vice versa) as the examiner. This familiarity does not necessarily affect the integrity of the examination process, although there is a deviation from anonymous marking. However, in OSCEs that use several circuits of the same stations the marking is repeatedly shown to be very consistent which supports the validity that the OSCE is a fair clinical examination. There are arguments for and against quarantining OSCE examinees to prevent sharing of exam information. [5] Although the data tend to show no improvement in the overall scores in a later OSCE session, the research methodology is flawed and validity of the claim is questionable. [6] A study suggested that marks do not give a sound inference of student collusion in an OSCE. [7] Candidates Preparation [ edit ]

The assessors were provided with competency assessment mark sheets with a binary grading system (i.e., pass or fail) developed according to each OSCE case in this study. Four assessors assigned to each station based on the peer investigator's judgement, evaluated the competencies of all students as per the provided criteria. The pass-fail grading system is appropriate to assess the clinical simulation performance of the healthcare students [ 29, 30]. The assessors were provided with specific exemplar answers for each evaluation criterion to make their assessment similar. For each evaluation criterion, the students received either a pass or a fail on their clinical performance or communication skills, from the assessors with the following standards: (1) a pass when meeting 50% or more of each assessment criterion for clinical performance and communication skills and (2) a fail when meeting less than 50% of each assessment criterion. Consequently, the students and assessors conducted surveys with a four-point Likert scale on the difficulty, usefulness, and satisfaction of each OSCE competency area. Students were informed that they could individually attain their assessment results if desired. AnalysisOnce you finish your examination you may have some spare time; don’t let this go to waste. Look around to see if there’s any equipment in the room you’ve not used. Recommended as a surgical treatment for patients who have failed previous trials of management. Prosthetic options are inflatable implants vs. semirigid rods. In inflatable implants, the patient presses a pump which fills a surgically-implanted cylinder with fluid, thereby propelling an erection. Contrastingly, with semirigid rods, the penis remains rigid at all times and patients may choose to manoeuvre the device upwards to conceal their erection in times outwith sexual activity. Penile implants last for 10-15 years. The risks of prothesis are infection, implant malfunction and internal erosion/adhesion. You may be required to select and justify the best therapeutic option available. For example, in a situation involving a patient’s request for assistance in selecting an appropriate nonprescription remedy for symptomatic relief, limited products will be displayed and there will be one or more appropriate and inappropriate options. Even if you believe there is a better option than those provided, you must choose the most appropriate option(s) from those available.