Oh man, blogosphere…it’s looks like this student doc is clinic bound!
Since January, I have been practicing for the final practical of all FINAL practicals: the infamous (and definitely sweat-worthy) pre-clinic checkout. In this checkout every skill we have mastered over the past two years is given one last final assessment to ensure we are clinic-ready for May. For these past two weeks, second-year students have been demonstrating their proficiency in case history, chair skills, refraction, anterior segment assessment, posterior segment evaluation, and determining an assessment and plan for their patients. We also had to talk our way through the whole exam explaining the purpose of each skill and our subsequent findings. Oh, and did I forget to mention we only had 1 hour to complete the entire checkout?! Manageable yes, but every moment was absolutely nerve-wrecking. The only thing that kept me sane through my checkout was knowing in 60minutes it’d be all over.
In the end, the months of preparation paid off. I knew my script and skills backwards and forwards…literally I could do the whole exam in my sleep! Then on checkout-day my chips all fell into place, and I was able to finish my examination, with minutes to spare :)
Then it was my turn to be patient. Sitting as patient was probably just as stressful, no…actually it was MORE STRESSFUL than performing my checkout! I just crossed my fingers my eyes would cooperate and that my examination results wouldn’t hinder my classmate in any way. I’d hate to think I had caused my classmate to get flustered on a skill. So much pressure! Fortunately my classmate did well on his exam, completed it in time, and can now proudly stare third-year in the face.
Hold on to your phoropter, Memphis…the Class of 2015 is about to be let loose on May 13!
Carpe Diem,
Amy