With so many things to read I have been reviving my interest in speed reading. I'm not sure it's working though, although a computer based test tells me my reading speed has gone from 450 to 660 words a minute.
James Shorthouse has elaborated on my list of topics that might come up, with a few suggestions about what would lend itself to being a good SAQ question.
PS: For the princely sum of £7.86 you too can improve your speed reading by buying a program from here. I bought it for a bit of work distraction, but you can plug your own text into the program to read (so you can learn while you practice!) though you do have to tweak it sometimes in Notepad or Wordpad first if you copy and paste from PDF files. And, okay, it has a bit of a...ahem...naff title (Speed Your Read), but hey...
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Friday, 28 March 2008
Other topics that might appear
Paediatric fluid resuscitation (Article in April
Anaesthesia and an NPSA guideline last year).
Anaesthesia and an NPSA guideline last year).
Epicardial Pacing (two review articles in March and April
Anaesthesia 2007).
Conscious sedation and dental type anaesthesia (Articles
in Anaesthesia last year).
Complications of head injury (Article in Anaesthesia in
May 2007. Head injuries are quite a common question).
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Sunday, 23 March 2008
So what's coming up?
Well, I think that anyone doing Final FRCA ought to be looking out for at least some of the following:
Questions on anaesthesia and obesity (New AAGBI guidelines)
Local Anaesthetic Toxicity (New AAGBI guideline incorporating Intralipid (Lipidrescue))
CEMACH (new report at the end of last year) - something always comes up the following exam
Intrapartum analgesia (NICE guideline in 2007 and two articles to do with epidurals in CEACCP in last 12 months)
Malignant Hyperthermia (revised AAGBI guideline and another perennial favourite)
Thyroid surgery (CEACCP article in April 2007, perennial favourite and something about it in every SAQ book I've got)
Coagulation questions (At least two articles in CEACCP over the last 12 months, it's another topic open for discussion, and there's the whole "cell-based model" to consider. Maybe something on Novo7, and also Fondaparinux/ways of preventing DVT/VTE)
So there's some things that I think MIGHT come up.
Questions on anaesthesia and obesity (New AAGBI guidelines)
Local Anaesthetic Toxicity (New AAGBI guideline incorporating Intralipid (Lipidrescue))
CEMACH (new report at the end of last year) - something always comes up the following exam
Intrapartum analgesia (NICE guideline in 2007 and two articles to do with epidurals in CEACCP in last 12 months)
Malignant Hyperthermia (revised AAGBI guideline and another perennial favourite)
Thyroid surgery (CEACCP article in April 2007, perennial favourite and something about it in every SAQ book I've got)
Coagulation questions (At least two articles in CEACCP over the last 12 months, it's another topic open for discussion, and there's the whole "cell-based model" to consider. Maybe something on Novo7, and also Fondaparinux/ways of preventing DVT/VTE)
So there's some things that I think MIGHT come up.
Memory....
I have rediscovered mindmaps.
As previously mentioned I struggle with categorisation into lists, but after reading the whole thing about MECE it occurred to me that I used mindmaps when I was revising for the primary, so I've started using them again.
It's actually quite a relief to realise that the reason I used them before is because to me they make sense.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about see here. If that doesn't make sense (it's a mind map you're looking at), then see here or here.
Personally I think they work really well for me, and this morning has all been about Cardiac Anaesthesia, including everything to do with CPB, post-op management and complications. I couldn't quite fit it all onto one page of A4, but I could have managed it on a sheet of A3 I think.
And that's with my normal sized writing.
As previously mentioned I struggle with categorisation into lists, but after reading the whole thing about MECE it occurred to me that I used mindmaps when I was revising for the primary, so I've started using them again.
It's actually quite a relief to realise that the reason I used them before is because to me they make sense.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about see here. If that doesn't make sense (it's a mind map you're looking at), then see here or here.
Personally I think they work really well for me, and this morning has all been about Cardiac Anaesthesia, including everything to do with CPB, post-op management and complications. I couldn't quite fit it all onto one page of A4, but I could have managed it on a sheet of A3 I think.
And that's with my normal sized writing.
Friday, 21 March 2008
Cimetidine
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
Congenital
Infection/inflammation
Metabolic
Endocrine
Trauma
Idiopathic
Degenerative
Iatrogenic
Neoplastic
Everything else
I,E,HEMICOPT, HONE, MISTS, DAM, TIA, PMR, ABCD AFTER
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!)
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!)
Classify or die
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:
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.
For example:
Q:What are the causes of muscle weakness in an intensive care patient?
A:
- Treatable causes
- Non-treatble causes
A:
- Parenteral nutrition
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
- Enteral nutrition
- Advantages
- Disadvantages
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.
Preliminaries
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
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
Exam Intelligence - what the hell is that?
Well, it basically means trying to figure out what are the hot topics in the run up to the Final FRCA, and keeping that information somewhere central that I can access from pretty much anywhere with an internet connection.
If it helps someone else, that's great, but that's not what it's entirely aimed at!
I'm compiling a list at the moment, so if you are keeping tabs, don't expect to see it immediately, and just because it's on here, doesn't mean it will come up, and just because it isn't, doesn't mean it won't!
If it helps someone else, that's great, but that's not what it's entirely aimed at!
I'm compiling a list at the moment, so if you are keeping tabs, don't expect to see it immediately, and just because it's on here, doesn't mean it will come up, and just because it isn't, doesn't mean it won't!
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