Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Honeybadger — Sat, 31 Aug 2013 10:38:21 GMT

I think that nerves is the worst thing for most people. Keep reminding yourself that you are a great nurse that does these jobs at work all the time. I'm not sure if the set up is still the same but when I did mine the examiner read the task to me and then gave me a few minutes to read it over myself. Use all of this time to read the task carefully and then prepare in your head what you will do and the important points that need to be covered. Then take a deep breath and mentally calm your self before you start. I also took calms before my exams - not sure if it made a difference!

Good Luck

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Emily Wright — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 22:13:47 GMT

Thank you for the advice :) luckily I've managed to talk to the rcvs and they have moved me to hartpury as I was having transport issues plus the only other person I know taking them is at hartpury now to just work on the nerves :/

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Mark Hedberg — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 10:27:50 GMT

[quote user="Emily Wright"]Newbie here but I also have my practicals in two weeks but I have to travel from Worcestershire to Huntingdon for 9am :/ hoping the other half can get the weekend off to spend fri night at his parents which is down the road from there bricking it too though Pixit

[/quote]

Hi Emily! Not really exam advice, just a quick note to allow time for traffic - occasionally there's a funny queue (bad road design) where the M6 turns into the A14 and later on when the A14 crosses the A1. (I work at CAW Huntingdon and I drive that stretch on business periodically.)

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Eira Davies — Fri, 30 Aug 2013 10:24:45 GMT

As previously said, the main thing is not to rush but to keep calm. I talked each one of my examiners through every step of what I was doing, and found it helped quite a lot :) Also, don't forget to ask for restraint of your patient (teddy) ;) The examiners are not there to catch you out, they're actually really nice and will try to help you within reason. Listen out for 'have you finished' or 'are you sure you've finished' ;)

Main thing is DONT PANIC!

Eira x

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Emily Wright — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 20:44:37 GMT

Newbie here but I also have my practicals in two weeks but I have to travel from Worcestershire to Huntingdon for 9am :/ hoping the other half can get the weekend off to spend fri night at his parents which is down the road from there bricking it too though Pixit

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Charley83 — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 16:30:52 GMT

Good Luck All

Eppy hope Friday the 13th brings you some good luck :)

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Ceri Boyd — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 13:44:17 GMT

So mine are at Myerscough on Friday 13th.... so nervous!

Where's everyone else?

Ceri :) x

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Ceri Boyd — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 16:21:09 GMT

I have mine too and am bricking it! Do you have a date and time yet? Ceri x

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

emmRAR — Sat, 24 Aug 2013 13:44:58 GMT

I was writing down my calculation formulas every day in the run up to my practicals. Also writing down all the landmarks, collimation, centring etc for the xrays, just to learn it. The most important thing is to actually set up the stations and get someone to time and assess you, you can't just learn a list of steps. It's very well reading how to do everything, but if you can't physically do it then you don't stand a chance. I was finishing all my mock stations in 3 minutes, and was getting right up to the 6 minute mark in the actual exams. Just repeat everything until you could do it in your sleep and are bored rigid of it, that's the best advice I can give you!

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

WTF_dinosaur — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 20:18:20 GMT

Just keep going over it in practice, any chance you get to do set tasks do to osce standard, every morning you set up the anesthetic machine, do a couple of calculations on FGF rate for different size animals, work out for all your days anesthetics, anytime you have a spare bit of blood practice your smears. The osce stations are things nurses do every day at work use this to you advantage and make sure your going stage by stage osce standard.

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

GremlinNurse — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 19:19:09 GMT

My advice(after failing my practicals last month) would be to not only revise the content, methodology, calculations etc but also think about exam technique. Nerves really got the better of me on the day.

You get 6 minutes for each task, use that time wisely to avoid silly mistakes, don't rush and DO NOT LEAVE THE BOOTH until you are CERTAIN you have done everything you needed to.

Also try to visualise what you need to do for each task when you are outside each station, reading the task.

Breathe...and remember you are there to show them how good you are, and that you are capable of being an RVN

Good luck!

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

hssvn2510 — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 13:02:58 GMT

Hi, I also have my practicals coming up too! Have you got a date/time yet?

Helen

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

paula morgan — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 05:47:17 GMT

make up flash cards with crystals/parasite/x rays etc fluids just calculate fluid rate for every animal that comes in to practice, that also goes for flow rates and as Sarah says go over the OSCEs back to front and inside out! Good luck x

Re: Practicals, in two weeks, MELTDOWN!!

Sarah Cahill — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 22:19:55 GMT

I would just keep going over the calculations on the OSCEs :-)