how hard is pharmacy is it doable at all

[Lazy Nite]

Hey

OSCE’s stands for Observed Structured Clinical Exam. I had my first OSCE in my 4th year; I was scared as hell, but the first one was a practice anyway…..

Personally, I think OSCE’s are very useful, it can identify your strengths and weaknesses. I had about 8 different stations and a 30 minute checking exercise. On each station we had about 5-6 minutes to complete the activity. You can take in your BNF and MEP as well.

Station 1: Counseling a patient
Station 2: Responding to symptoms
Station 3: Law questions/ ethical decision making
Station 4: Hospital drug chart
Station 5: Checking CD’s
Station 6: Drug Interactions
Station 7: Vet Rx

Something like that, I can’t remember the other ones (will have to look at my 4th year notes).

OSCE’s will vary between different schools, but I believe most of them now have OSCE’s in place.

Hope that helps....

[Prospective Student]

Thanks a lot for the info on OSCE's everyone.

They seem quite daunting, I would have a nervous breakdown.

I hope the written exams are more important than the OSCE's as I cant see myself performing very well in them.

Can anyone at Kings/Medway tell me what proportion of your total marks, do OSCE's count for?

Do the examiners tend to be arrogant bigwigs like hospital consultants?
Sorry to ask in such a way, but I'm considering a career in Pharmacy,
and I want to ensure that its doesn't bare much resemblance to Medicine MBBS, where the finals OSCE's are like 24 x 5 minute stations times 2, and they count for 50% of marks and u gotta perform in front of arrogant consultants!!! Not to forget the million OSCES across yrs 1-5. I dont want to be tested till I drop.
No thanks - I dont want to venture into a similar career or university course!!

Please tell me MPharm is different and OSCE's do not constitute as much?!!!!!!!


Thanks everyone

[johnep]

Presume you mean oral exams. Only ones I ever had were French and German at school, the pharmacology and pharmacognosy at uni. Generally I found examiners were kindly and understanding.
johnep

[Lazy Nite]

The first OSCE was scary, only because we didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know about pharmacy-forum then and the lectures couldn’t give away too much info…

I think you are lucky, because now you have an idea what OSCE’s are about.

Only 2 of the stations – the counseling and responding to symptoms had examiners (who were our favorite Uni lecturers). The other stations no one is waiting for you to answer…just as long as you complete the answer sheet within the time given.

At the end of the OSCE…the lecturers gave us feedback, so that we could prepare better for the real one. It’s not scary when you have some idea what to expect. I only had one real OSCE in my fourth year….about 3-5 students failed it out of 150….

The OSCE was part of one Unit…50% was the OSCE and the other 50% was a written exam. We usually had 5-6 Units in each semester…

[mm45]

At Brighton we have one OSCE every year but each year they get abit harder. The first year OSCE is relatively easy all you need to do is dispense a prescription with no errors and take a drug history from a patient. As long as you respect your patient and ask the right questions, eg drug allergies you pass. Each year they add on a section like you have to make an intervention to a prescription.

I personally like OSCEs as on my course they do count for about the same as a large written exam but you are tested more on your ability to 'act like a pharmacist' ie talking to patients, dispensing, completing a care plan, then being able to rattle off lots of intricate facts. They can seem daunting but its much easier then situations you may be faced with when you start work, I think its a good way of gentley getting you used to working with patients.

[Prospective Student]

Hmm kewl so it doesn't count for much then, 50 % of a unit in final year?
doesn't seem similar to med school OSCE's?

hope kings/ SOP / medway have very little OSCE components.

Thanks for the advice

[mm45]

No medicine will have a much greater OSCE component because they have a bigger practical element to their course with their clinical skills. Dont worry about OSCEs you will be fine, you will get practice sessions leading up to the exam to make sure you know what to expect.

As for how hard is pharmacy? I dont think it is particulary hard. Its alot of work but aslong as you keep ontop and read around the subject you will be fine. First year is normally alot revision of Alevel with a gentle entry into the basis of pharmacology. My best advice is try and get experience of working in a pharmacy and make sure its what you want to do. If so go for it you will be fine!

[johnep]

Get a friend to practice with you and make a video so you can see. When doing sales training we had videos made of our performance and a great help, and a laugh.
johnep