DNB examination especially the practical one is a horror festival! Of course most such examination in a good medical set up is tough and high on nerves but the DNB is specially difficult since it is conducted not in your college or hospital where you have learnt the ropes!
It is conducted in some other place and hospital! In my case it was conducted in a different city and state! None of the professors or teachers may know you and you do not have any familiarity!
Expect sleepless nights to prepare for the unexpected!
The examination pattern is called objective structured clinical examination or OSCE!
Sometimes you will have a healthy patient and all you have to do is ask for history! And if you forget to ask an important point then it’s gone! You are expected to do procedures like AUDIOMETRY test and not believe the technician to do it!
You may be evaluated on how you actually talk to the patient! Getting the diagnosis is a done deal! This goes above and beyond that! How you behave, which instrument you take first, how you assess the patient and how you conduct tests is what is ‘tested’!
The only way to prepare apart from all the theory knowledge is to attend as many mock tests as possible! These tests prepare you to a certain extent!
The tests are usually stations with time interval. Sometimes you need to identify, while in some you need to perform. In many stations you are supposed to simply see and recognize the findings and then answer the questions in the next station!
Rest assured, you can expect questions based on the latest guidelines and trend! During my time we had the SARS pandemic and though it was not direct ENT; we were still asked everything about the SARS virus!
Sometimes the patient is real, while sometimes it is simply a student who has been ‘instructed’ to answer your specific questions! If you ask the correct and proper question, he or she will give you the answer! You not only have to get the answer but also must know the proper question to ask! All when the time is ticking and the situation is super tense!
One such mock test was going on and this station had a CT Scan film! Of course we knew it top to bottom! Being trained in a premier institute, CT PNS or the scan of the sinuses was like child’s play for us! We could get a mine load of info from just a limited coronal cut! And this one had all views!
This film had Sinusitis, mucous collection, a deviation septum and narrow meatus and what not! We could also find stuff like concha and some other cells which one of our faculty used to call the IDK and IDC cells! It means I don’t know and I don’t care! Of course he was an international faculty and he did not have to know or care! But we knew even that! We did not miss anything! Wrote everything on a piece of paper to answer the questions on the next station based on the CT!
The next station based on the findings of the CT SCAN was of ten vital marks! At the top of my mind I could already imagine more than ten findings! Add the management and further investigation and you have material for even a hundred marks! Let the challenge begin!
There were unfortunately only two questions!
The first was; WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE PATIENT!? and the second
WHAT WAS HIS AGE?!!
That was the biggest lesson I have ever learnt in a mock test! The raw fact is that you are not just reading a scan! You are treating a patient! A human! He is not just a finding for you! He is a person who has come for getting a treatment!
Even the age is important as far as any issue is concerned! In fact they are the two most important factors in treatment!
Now this was a mock test so it was ok to score a dud which we did! But some experiences are remembered for life! So next time you read a report; first read the name and age of the patient!
Of course if you are calm and peaceful then any exam is easy! Then again not everyone can be as calm and peaceful as the Holy Dalai Lama!
Shubh ratri!
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