General Advice for NAC OSCE: Part 1
We have roughly 12 weeks until the exam. Now is a good time to start hitting the books first and reviewing topics. Think bread and butter family medicine and emergency medicine cases. You are very unlikely to get cases like rhabdomyosarcoma or Sturge-Weber Syndrome so don’t bother with rare stuff. You are more likely to get cases you’d find in an outpatient family medicine clinic or on a slow day in the emergency room. I just asked Gemini to give me the top 10 primary care cases that might appear on an OSCE exam and it’s essentially what’s listed on the MCC website, but with more detail. Go through all the major systems, pick out the most common differential diagnoses, and review what sort of questions will best help you narrow down your differential. It is not necessary to buy a special textbook or spend money on an expensive NAC OSCE prep course, especially big companies like BeMo. You may feel the need to spend money in order to feel like you're doing everything you can, but try not to give in to this feeling. Go through your medical school notes, Geeky Medics, or AI and there will be more than enough for you to review.
Remember that the purpose of this exam is to determine whether you are at the level of a clerk (final year Canadian medical student), so the bar is actually pretty low lol. However, you should be an excellent history taker, be able to do a thorough and efficient physical exam, and be able to provide a simple management plan. This is the final goal, but for now, a good starting point is reviewing the basics.
Next topic: History Taking