OSCE alternatives?

Any education process has always been in a state of change; it’s the one thing you can guarantee.

While I know this causes stress, it’s worth focusing on what the educational process is aiming to achieve. In particular, with OSCEs, its aim is to ensure you are a safe and competent practitioner – for you, your patients and others.

With this in mind, it might be a good time to consider what we could use as OSCE alternatives. Or what I would call ROSCEs – Real Optimal Skills for Clients Exam.

In the consulting room

Firstly, let’s consider the skills required in the consult room that no vet or vet nurse can do without. How quickly, safely and professionally can you do each of these:

• Make up the latest Argos cat basket after you’ve dismantled it to get out an aggressive cat?
• Get a buster or balloon collar on a greyhound that’s just had a torn nail removed?
• Get a one-eyed pug back in a harness that only fits over its head?

Yeah, each of these strikes a bit of fear into all of us. I’d rather position a cervical spine radiograph in my OSCEs than have to be examined in any of these.

COVID may be a time of knowledge swapping so everyone can work efficiently and as a team. Smaller teams and increased patient numbers require this, as does our sanity. Could you make a mock ROSCE for these tasks to support your colleagues?

On reception

Yes, it would appear COVID has meant EVERYONE has to learn how to do some basic tasks that are essential in making the clinic run smoothly.

I’ve previously written about getting vets to take payments in the consult room – a blog that divided the readers pretty clearly – yet, in these strange times, I’ve read of vets being proud they can now work the card payment machine… a change that was much needed in my view.

So can you do any of these?

• Process a refund
• Set up a pet club plan
• Explain the dispensing fee to a client

Maybe an exam is a bit much for these, so an SOP would be good.

While this is a light-hearted blog for these crazy times, ROSCEs could be a great way to transfer knowledge and maybe have a bit of fun. Timed buster collar assembly races might just be the way to blow off steam at the end of shift.