OSCE initial skin prep

Re: OSCE initial skin prep

Amanda Burns — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 07:59:45 GMT

Hey

First of all thank you everyone for your replies! V.Helpful. Yes, I have all the tasks and know this one off by heart apart from obv's physically with the drape lol. I never thought of it like that - as it not a grey area it not automatic fail - I shall try my best with it if it crops up on the day. I did think of the cheatle forceps, as long as there are instruments available I will use them I think and if not I shall do the above and exaggerate to examiner what i'm doing and why. I would love to do revision sesh somewhere but with 9 mnth old baby and working 2 jobs, getting time off even for the osces is a problem!

Anyhoo thanks again

Re: OSCE initial skin prep

emmaj_davy — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 22:33:49 GMT

I took the OSCEs last year and this one is new! I would highly recommend (if you can afford it or convince your practice to pay for it) a revision session at somewhere like College of Animal Welfare, if you don't have the 'actual' task, it is here http://awardingbody.rcvs.org.uk/document-library/tp05-initial-surgical-preparation/ - It doesn't give any advice / recommendation as to what to do so I would go by opening the packed drape 'in a banana like fashion' and then getting hold of the edges as you have suggested, you could also speak to your college, they should be preparing you for this stuff! or failing that speak to one of the centres holding revision sessions.

Also, the drape covering is NOT vital part of the task, so long as you carry out the 'grey areas' you (hopefully) can't fail. Good Luck

Re: OSCE initial skin prep

kerryfeehan — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 22:17:44 GMT

We pondered this one at college as it was introduced just before I re-sat my OSCEs! Fortunately I didn't get it but we thought that as long as you only touch a corner of the drape that is no where near the op site that would be fine. It is difficult with the new ones as no one has done them before and they are very specific in how they want the tasks completed! Good luck

Re: OSCE initial skin prep

Nick Shackleton — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 20:02:07 GMT

Back in the dark ages when I was an SVN we used to use cheatles forceps to drape out trolleys aseptically. Then when I started working in referral practices we used to have a scrub nurse who used to scrub in with most procedures and therefore we would be gowned and gloved and therefore able to handle the drapes and place them aseptically onto the patient and clip into place with either towel clamps or staples

Re: OSCE initial skin prep

Amanda Burns — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 19:14:12 GMT

That does make sense to use instruments,.I have been reading books but nothing about non sterile handler and the OSCE says put sterile drape on in an aseptic manner, thought it would be more specific than that. Anyhoo, thank you muchly, you have helped

Re: OSCE initial skin prep

enigmaticat-uk — Fri, 08 Aug 2014 17:41:49 GMT

To be honest I'm not really up to speed on what is taught currently. I did my training about 10 years ago and when we did our practicals for non-sterile handler dealing with sterile drapes we had to use some sort of instruments (like long-handles forceps) which sat in disinfectant so the ends were 'sterile'-ish and the handles weren't. I can't for the life of me remember what they were called as even then we were told that they were old fashioned & no-one ever uses them, but we had to know how do it for our exam. In practice I've only ever seen a sterile handler placing drapes.

Sorry this probably isn't much help!