Getting most from job

The exposure you get from a busy job is excellent preparation for the exam.

It will give you much of what you need to know.

Ideally, read up the topic when you encounter a case.

Check it out in the MCQs included in the Stockport Package.

You should try to ensure that you have tutorials.

Their value is to help you become confident in the practical management of the problems you encounter e.g. post partum haemorrhage.

They also mean that the main topics that will appear in the examination are discussed in an up-to-date fashion.

Even the most recently published textbook is a year or two behind the times.

Consultants are usually good teachers; you just need to commandeer some time from their busy schedules.

Registrars, especially those preparing for the MRCOG, are usually keen to teach and very up to date.

You must get to antenatal & gynaecology clinics and ideally should see patients on your own.

Some clinics restrict you to seeing review patients or clerking new patients for the consultant.

I think that this limits your training.

It is better that you should see both new and review patients and then present them to the consultant.

This gives you the opportunity to advise patients about what is wrong with them and the investigations and treatment options that are appropriate.

This will stand you in good stead in the examination, where you will be asked about appropriate investigations & treatments.

At the same time it ensures that the patient gets consultant supervision of their management.

It is worth attending colposcopy, outpatients hysteroscopy clinics etc. at least once.

The key facts will stick much more easily.

If you have not been on a Family Planning course, you should at least attend a clinic on a number of occasions.

A couple of (professional) visits to the Sexually Transmitted Diseases clinic would be invaluable as STDs feature in the examination.