oral board prep for pain fellows?

[gascopper]

So, i get this has been brought up at nauseum in the anesthesia forums, but if u are a pain fellow with a full schedule and dont have opportunity to do locums in GA to keep your anesthesia skills and knowledge up to speed, what oral course is recommended? Thoughts???

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[willabeast]

there was a book called board stiff that i liked

Amazon product

 

[Ducttape]

that book is inexpensive and pretty good.

i took Ho's course, for a week CME kind of thing. he does a great job, and sets you up with contacts with other people prepping for the test. practice is the most important element. i highly recommend, although expensive, its by far best to pass the first time around...

https://anconsultants.com/index.html

 

[willabeast]

i used to tutor for oral boards (over 20 years ago). what i found in my students was that many had different problems. (these were people who had failed in the past). the most common problem was not anesthesia knowledge, it was basic medicine.
the #2 problem was an inability to come up with an extensive differential diagnosis for each "event" in the oral boards.
for example, wheezing would be only bronchospasm when the students also needed to say possible CHF, allergic reaction, pneumothorax, aspiration, foreign body in OETT, cuff problems with OETT, (the more the better IMHO).
if you only said bronchospasm in response to asthma or wheezing you were dog meat. (in the opinion of some of the examiners, rule out sadistic mean spirited MF'ers who enjoy having the power of life and death over your career).

 

[Agast]

I took the 4-day Ho course, I was halfway through his book when I went to the class. Michael Ho is a beast. Granted he's teaching the same material every few months for the last few years, but he is really thorough and explains things really well, and the class is basically him lecturing non-stop. He also does online webcam group sessions. I suspect he does not require a lot of sleep at night. He also has a very good understanding of what kinds of questions you are asked so you get a lot of "teach to the test" type information. To me it was worth the money to increase my chances of passing the first time around.

 

[BobBarker]

My friend went to a Ho course and did an exam with him. He said Ho was texting while giving the exam. He didn't think it was worth the time/money.

 

[ether123]

i used justoralboards.com because my schedule as a pain fellow was "painfully" tight. this was the only course that gave mock skype exams and i needed the experience and practice. highly recommend it

 

[Yo GabbaPentin]

Say NO to the HO. Ultimate board prep and economy sized tub of lube is all you need.

 

[PinchandBurn]

I did all three.

1) I did a HO course x2
2) I like Board stiff for the DDX. Memorize these, they do a good job listing these
3) I liked Just oral boards.com The skype option and getting your confidence up is huge. You want to do so many of these Skype orals that you are literally board of these. It's all pattern recognition

I was at a very busy pain fellowship while doing all of this. Time Management will be huge.

 

[mountainDOc09]

Get one of your old residency classmates to do regular practice sessions starting a few months ahead. Or someone who has already passed--just verbalizing answers is the most important part. You would be surprised at how many people are willing to help you practice. When you are giving exams to your friends, be honestly critical. Board stiff was awesome, and great for memorizing differentials. I had a classmate who went off for an ICU fellowship--also not in the OR for the year. Ideally we would each go through one exam stem a few times a week, but it probably averaged once a week for three months, then much more often during "crunch" time the few weeks before. Most programs have attending a who are or were examiners, and if you ask sweetly will be happy to give you mock exams with invaluable feedback. Do this early, and as often as you can get away with. If you can fit in repetition, I say skip the courses.

 

[Ducttape]

if your co-fellows are also taking the exam, then get in 1/2 hour early 2-3 times a week and do mock exams.

 

[Yo GabbaPentin]

I did exactly one mock oral. Spent the majority of time with ultimate board prep and talking out loud to myself. Asked myself in each scenario what my night mare questions would be, then looked up those answers.

 

[gascopper]

I did all three.

1) I did a HO course x2
2) I like Board stiff for the DDX. Memorize these, they do a good job listing these
3) I liked Just oral boards.com The skype option and getting your confidence up is huge. You want to do so many of these Skype orals that you are literally board of these. It's all pattern recognition

I was at a very busy pain fellowship while doing all of this. Time Management will be huge.

I appreciate the feedback here. I've heard from a bunch of people that justoralboards.com seems to be the go to course for pain fellows. I'll likely do that, but still wondering if there are other opinions out there.

 

[Yo GabbaPentin]

I appreciate the feedback here. I've heard from a bunch of people that justoralboards.com seems to be the go to course for pain fellows. I'll likely do that, but still wondering if there are other opinions out there.

Lube. A lot of it.

 

[ether123]

whats up with u and lube?

 

[ruch1979]

i would do justoralboards.com. best value for your time