Study is the part of the site associated with study tips and tricks, like how to make your working environment better (a real necessity, given the amount of time you will spend readin), how to study more efficiently and effectively, and information on the exam and exam technique.
Mar 21, 2008 in Study
Quite apart from being a drug, CIMETIDINE is one of these mnemonics I learned at medical school, then forgot, but was prompted to remember. It is the sieve of differential diagnosis:
Congenital
Infection/inflammation
Metabolic
Endocrine
Trauma
Idiopathic
Degenerative
Iatrogenic
Neoplastic
Everything else
Mar 21, 2008 in Study
What?
Google is your friend….
Alternatively, here is what it all means:
http://frca.co.uk/Page.aspx?id=78
Very useful, it basically is a summary of how to answer any “How would you anaesthetise….?” question.
Obviously it can be adapted to answer pretty much any question along those lines.
e.g.
A 35y old otherwise fit and healthy patient with condition xyz requiring emergency surgery has a BMI of >35. What problems would you have to take into consideration for anaesthetising this patient?
(Any volunteers for answering this question, please feel free to post or email your answers!)
Mar 21, 2008 in Study
One of the things I personally have most problems with is the concept of “Classify Or Die”, that is, you should break your answer down into specific categories, so that it is more intelligible, and gives the impression, at least, that you have a way of thinking about things. I can grasp the concept, but sometimes I struggle to break things down into appropriate categories. This doesn’t mean I can’t answer the question, because I can get the information across in a suitable way, but it doesn’t look as splendidly tidy as that of some other people. (Interestingly, a friend and I sat down and compared our answers to past papers. We had the same information, but my friend’s answers looked a lot neater on the page. Why? Simply put because the answer was classified and tabulated neatly, whereas mine just appeared to be a series of sentences put together.).
For example:
Q:What are the causes of muscle weakness in an intensive care patient?
A:
Q: How might you provide nutrition for a patient on intensive care?
A:
One concept of managing your categorisation is a concept called “MECE”, which is an abbreviation for “Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive”. The concept is best explained here and here. Obviously it’s not the only way of doing it, but it’s one way.
Looking back at previous papers, and trying to answer the questions, and doing some searches on the good old internet (GIYF, mostly), topics crop up in the exam, as mentioned by James Shorthouse (here - http://passingthefinal.blogspot.com/), about which review articles have been published in the twelve months prior to the examination.
Review articles from the following journals seem to be sources on regular occasions:
British Journal of Aaesthesia (http://bja.oxfordjournals.com)
Continuing Education in Anaeshtesia, Critical Care and Pain (http://ceaccp.oxfordjournals.org/)
Anaesthesia (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/ana)
The first two are accessible using a username and password you can obtain if you are a member of the RCoA, by contacting the BJA with the address label from your copy of the BJA in hand.
Anaesthesia is accessible through the AAGBI website with your AAGBI membership number (look in the left hand column once you’ve logged in on www.aagbi.org)
Other sources of questions are new guidelines or information published by the following organisations in the previous 12 months:
National Institute for Clinical Excellence
AAGBI
National Patient Safety Agency
CEMACH
NCEPOD
