These are from the instructions to candidates issued by the Royal Colleges
"Note: All parts of the examination will be conducted in English and will use terminology and procedures relevant to the NHS in the UK. Candidates should be familiar with UK guidance issued by National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) or Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN). "
Do not lose these easy-to-score marks. There are many aspects of the examination which requires you to have UK specific knowledge. You may argue this is unfair and quote practices back at your institution, but, you want to maximise your chances and not end up arguing with the examiners about variation in practices. Besides, its good to know what the rest of the world is up to. Below are some common examples of what you should read up on.
Fluids
Writing a fluid order and interpreting a fluid chart from the UK may be hard for those who have not seen one. Please go take a look at the examples on google image. Potassium does not come in 100ml packs (except the ITUs which stock 40mmol variants in 100mls that usually need to be prescribed like controlled drugs). Instead, 10mmols is often mixed in with pints of 0.9% saline, dextrose-saline and all. This was an answer my examiner expected during my GOO question about K supplementation. I offered the 100ml variant that we used in Singapore and she frowned but I followed up by mentioning that I understand the UK uses pre-mixed KCl in 500ml solutions which I could use and she beamed.
Consent
2 consultants are NOT required for consent for an incompetent adult. But you are encouraged to get a second opinion. Some controversial decisions that do not have immediate life-death impact should be referred to the courts. Variations in practice among the different countries of UK. You do however need to take a look at the DOH's (Department of Health) forms 1 through 4 for consent. Read all about this. Its really important.
NICE guidelines
Plenty of controversy including those for infective endocarditis prophylaxis. They differ greatly from the AHA guidelines and in their 2011 review forum, there were quite a number of divergent voices from the Brits themselves. Do read up the debates that NICE posted on its website and understand the rationale behind these guidelines. Again quoting Singapore's eminent cardiologists' opinions that you remembered from your last referral to them is probably not going to help your case in the examination. This is a recurring topic in the TYS so know this inside out.
Specialised services
Genitourinary medicine for STDs. District nurses. Community nurses. Go read up more and look at all the past year questions and see how you are at a disadvantage having never worked in the UK before.
Jehovah's witnesses
AAGBI has a published guideline on this. Do a quick read on wikipedia so that you at least know what the Watch Tower is and about the existence of hospital liason committees. Even autologous blood transfusion are a no-no for them so dun bother mentioning that. Once again, this is yet another favourite topic.
Screening
Screening guidelines for Colorectal Cancer and Breast Cancer are a must-know. They differ for different parts of UK (England vs Scotland). You should stop using the flimsy excuse of explaining the screening in your own centre/country (which you can conjure up great wizardry from your fried brain and they wouldn't know how to grade you). Imagine your Singaporean friend before you quoting the Singapore guidelines wrongly; this is followed by you quoting them correctly. Who should the examiners believe? Or imagine if someone from a rural region said that his country had no screening guidelines. This is an OSCE. You just want to score the mark quickly and move on as fast as possible. Besides, it takes only 5 minutes of your time to read about it.
Handling complaints
Complaints - you must know how patient complaints are within NHS when it gets beyond your control, including the Patient Advice and Liaison Service - PALS. (Hope that your angsty patient does not end up at this stage!)
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