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ASHP Clinical Skills Competition... any advice?
Started by aboveliquidice
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Hmm, to give advice to my potential competition at the national competition or to not give advice... That is the question.
Basically don't waste much time giving patient info. I'd spend around 10 - 15 seconds max on that and then get right to your main problem. That's all you'll have time to present. Two minutes goes very quickly.
And, good luck! If you win, I'll see you at the national competition. 👍
Hmm, to give advice to my potential competition at the national competition or to not give advice... That is the question.
Basically don't waste much time giving patient info. I'd spend around 10 - 15 seconds max on that and then get right to your main problem. That's all you'll have time to present. Two minutes goes very quickly.
And, good luck! If you win, I'll see you at the national competition. 👍
Hey thanks... I will keep that in mind. We have some pretty stiff competition this go around - I think there are 13 groups for 1 spot (that is about typical right?)
When did you guys have your school competition? Did you already win???
~above~
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This might be too late, but I totally agree with Glycerin - don't waste your time going over the patient's history. Get straight to the plan, and don't give explanations for the plan either. You'll be able to do that during the q&a session. My partner and I made this mistake - we had a kickass plan but we screwed up on time management for the presentation. We'll find out tomorrow how we did. I think that this year there were ~11 teams from our school that competed.
We had ours around the third weekend of September, and yes, I'm one-half of the winning team from my school. 🙂
congrats... I didnt do so great - We had a great plan - but we missed a major study (even though that didn't effect our plan) and did not field the question very well. Also - I messed up some on the intro 🙁
Oh well - there is always next year...
~above~
Thanks. 🙂
And yeah, there's always next year. This was my third year competiting, and I finally won, so I felt the attempts and practice were worth it.
If you had the same case I had, I know what trial to which you're referring. 😉 I happened to mention that trial in my presentation, and I'm glad that I had exposure to reading about it on one of my rotations over the summer or I would have forgotten about it. I think rotations help a lot with doing well in the competition, though anyone can win it.
If you are going to Midyear, I encourage you to watch the top 10 teams present their cases on Sunday. I believe it'll be in the morning.
I strongly second the above statement. I was fortunate enough to win my school's competition as a third year and a fourth year, which essentially paid for my trips to the Midyear meeting. At the national level the first time around, I didn't have any practical knowledge that helped me formulate a plan that would have been implemented in the "real world." I literally laughed at said plan in retrospect during my subsequent rotations that were based in intensive care units (eg, me starting my make believe patient with a MAP of 92 on pressors).
I really think the national competition is extremely tough for a third year student who hasn't been on rotations. When I competed during my fourth year, I placed in the top 10, largely because I was able to come up with a fairly evidence based plan without spending all of my time over at the reference table furiously rifling through the DiPiro book.
Only super geeks and nerds do this sort o' thing.
I did it 1st and 3rd year. 1st year was obviously in over my head, but placed above a couple of teams of 3rd and 4th years. When I did it again 3rd year (with the same partner, also a 3rd year) I came in straight from a graveyard shift. I don't recommend that. Our patient wasn't that difficult but I ended up relying too much on my partner and we ended up 4th or so for the school.
Good luck at Midyear those who are going! If any of you make it to the Top 10 we'll come watch. And keep heckling to a minimum (j/k)
Good luck at Midyear those who are going! If any of you make it to the Top 10 we'll come watch. And keep heckling to a minimum (j/k)
Jealousy will get you nowhere in life.
Confession...
I'm jealous of Tiger Wood's god given mad golf skills.
I'm jealous of University of Texas success in football this year.
I'm jealous of the year round perfect weather in San Diego.
I'm jealous of that 9 year old girl who can play Recuerdos de la alhambra on the guitar.
and,
I'm smitten by the way this young lady plays the piano.
But I am not jealous of pharmacy nerds..
March on!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1fgo7hp-Ko[/youtube]
Confession...
I'm jealous of Tiger Wood's god given mad golf skills.
I'm jealous of University of Texas success in football this year.
I'm jealous of the year round perfect weather in San Diego.
I'm jealous of that 9 year old girl who can play Recuerdos de la alhambra on the guitar.
and,
I'm smitten by the way this young lady plays the piano.
But I am not jealous of pharmacy nerds..
March on!
Posting on this forum with any regularity makes you a nerd... type is up for debate. 🙄
~above~
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My jaw is slack from hanging open, and my palms red from clapping. Right now, I'm so ashamed of the five-finger exercises I'm still struggling with as I learn to play.
I think my life has been enriched just by watching that video.
That was awesome, her hands looked like spiders jumping on the keyboard. 😛
Anyway, I many members are there in a team?
Anyway, I many members are there in a team?
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two.
Her name is Yuja Wang, up and coming pianist!
The version she's playing is Mozart-Volodos Turkish March.
What's amazing is the genius of Mozart reworked by Arcadi Volodos who rearranged a master piece into something very special.
I never get tired of hearing it.
She has nice technical skills, but I hate the way that sounds. Mozart had it right the first time. Glenn Gould, my favorite but deceased pianist, plays it best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R54fHB8Zny8
Purists will disagree with me, and will want to hear it this way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdqK_w4I2iU
That's by the great Vladimir Horowitz.
If you want to see some truly great technical ability in a piece that sounds good, watch Horowitz play variations on a theme from Bizet's carmen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDwAHdOW8eg
You're welcome 😀
Very impressive, your school was in the top 10. Congrats! I met your assistant dean today, too.
UCSF won the national competition this year.
UCSF won the national competition this year.
That is good to hear - the team that won was VERY talented - and I am not surprised to hear that... Do you meet Dr. Jackson, Dr. B??? They are both good peoples.
Did you have fun at the competition??? Let us know how the quasi interviews go.
~above~
Well, I could either post a new thread on the same topic or necro-bump this one. So here we are.
Does anyone have any advice for a P1 trying to participate in this competition? Since we're still brand new to the school, etc, are we basically just getting the exposure/going through the motions by participating?
I hope to do well, but I also know we haven't covered SOAP notes, etc, or plans of action at all.
For anyone interested in this, it looks like ASHP has posted the last two years' worth of local and national "cases" (with answer key) on their site for study.
http://www.ashp.org/clinicalskills
They also provide a URL for a free six month trial of Lexi-comp on your mobile device, since an iPod touch with the program on it is supposed to be provided at the higher level competitions this year.
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Well, I could either post a new thread on the same topic or necro-bump this one. So here we are.
Does anyone have any advice for a P1 trying to participate in this competition? Since we're still brand new to the school, etc, are we basically just getting the exposure/going through the motions by participating?
I hope to do well, but I also know we haven't covered SOAP notes, etc, or plans of action at all.
For anyone interested in this, it looks like ASHP has posted the last two years' worth of local and national "cases" (with answer key) on their site for study.
http://www.ashp.org/clinicalskills
They also provide a URL for a free six month trial of Lexi-comp on your mobile device, since an iPod touch with the program on it is supposed to be provided at the higher level competitions this year.
+1.. i plan on doing this as well (as a P1).
Damn it was worth bumping this thread up just to see that girl play the piano. Poor piano needs a break after that ass kicking!
Wow... Two year time warp.
Advice? Go out and have fun. Read guidelines that are accepted as standards (gold, aha, etc.).
Get a feel for presenting cases... My presentation was horrible, but it was a really good lesson.
Advice? Go out and have fun. Read guidelines that are accepted as standards (gold, aha, etc.).
Get a feel for presenting cases... My presentation was horrible, but it was a really good lesson.
When is your competition? I believe ours is coming up weekend after next.
early october... i'm thinking about not doing it now. Although I have a good background in physiology I really don't know a lot of drugs. It would probably be better for me to do P2 year.
Our P2's were really positive about encouraging us to participate. The biggest thing is: I don't know where to look for plan of action for a given condition, etc.
I would just go into it trying to have fun and maybe learn something new along the way. I competed last year as a P2 and that's how I looked at it.
If I could give one piece of advice, it would be to look at the big picture. Last year, my partner and I got wrapped up in smaller details/problems and forgot to treat the patient's fungal infection. 🙄
If I could give one piece of advice, it would be to look at the big picture. Last year, my partner and I got wrapped up in smaller details/problems and forgot to treat the patient's fungal infection. 🙄
Yeah, the big thing I noticed in the cases from 2008/2009 is the amount of stuff besides the obvious. Counsel on STD's, safe sex, drug use, etc. Where do you see how often a patient should be monitored after being put on a new med (heart, diabetes, etc)?
Does anyone know a good guideline to follow when it comes to dosing?
Last year's case involved acute alcohol withdrawal, and had the pt on IV lorazepam with a set, regular interval, but the DiPiro reference says to provide single doses as needed. Are there other popular guideline references?
Last year's case involved acute alcohol withdrawal, and had the pt on IV lorazepam with a set, regular interval, but the DiPiro reference says to provide single doses as needed. Are there other popular guideline references?
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We run lorazepam at regular interval.
I admire any P1s attempting this. I just competed today and had a problem on a disease state I wasn't taught anything about yet but at least I kind of knew where to look for info. Hopefully next year will be easier when I can at least say, "oh, I vaguely remember something about that." A little lesson in humility is good once in awhile though.
Hey, but you winged it and that's great. I felt like the case we got was pretty straight forward but the crappy part was that we only got an hour and didn't get to use PDAs or the internet. We didn't even have lexi-comp LOL we had just the big ass texts the prof gave. I heard other schools had two hours? Wtf. Oh well. We find out soon who won.
it's easier to do it that way; but if you look at the sedation and analgesia guidelines it is better for patients to use prn sedatives (if using for ICU sedation). It's harder for nursing, and you do risk the patient missing doses.
Treating EtOH w/d is a bit controversial, as far as symptom-triggered (CIWA-Ar) vs. pre-emptive control. I've worked at 3 hospitals so far, and each one has handled it completely differently.
Yeah, I guess they didn't follow the rules. You are supposed to get two hours but I think you are supposed to get access to Lexi-Comp on your phone or something. Our school didn't have enough hard copy resources so we got to use any notes or electronic resources. That wasn't so bad but then for some reason that I still can't explain, I got locked out of DiPiro halfway through the competition. I didn't like that at all.
They didn't announce the winner the same day? In our school, we have two branches so the winner of each campus had to present their case a second time over video conference to be judged by the other campus. I'm guessing the winner knows the results by now.
We followed the ASHP competition handbook: 2 hours of the "written" portion, and then a 10 minute oral portion, during which we presented the patient and therapy plan for 2 minutes, and defended our actions for the other 8.
Thankfully, we were allowed access to electronic resources. I really liked being able to participate. Plus, it was kinda neat to see and use these resources way before the rest of our class.
Didn't hurt that we did well. 🙂
Thankfully, we were allowed access to electronic resources. I really liked being able to participate. Plus, it was kinda neat to see and use these resources way before the rest of our class.
Didn't hurt that we did well. 🙂
I came in 11th place when I did the Clinical Skills Competition in 2005...I feel old
Nationally? And 2005 wasn't that long ago. You want to know what makes you feel old? Realizing that one of the iconic movies of your teen years is older than one of your better pharmacy school friends. I'm sure I have t-shirts older than some of my classmates.
yes, nationally...If you've been to the competition, then you should be able to laugh at my comment 🙂
I'm not there yet, but getting there. Graduated HS in '95. Of course, that's when Z graduated at SC I'd bet.
i'm a second year, just competed in our school competition tonight. was mostly doing it for experience for next/4th year and just to get used to the competition format...it was a little overwhelming! we followed the standard ASHP format, 2 hours of research/prep, then 2 minutes to present and 8 minutes of questions. we weren't allowed to use ipod touches because they decided there wasn't a way to regulate wifi access, so we just had lexi-comp and the text resources.
i felt like i didn't have a lot of the therapeutic knowledge (yet), and my partner and i spent a lot of time just figuring out what all the labs/etc meant. we obvs didn't place because we were lacking in therapeutic knowledge and all but the sshp advisor said we did really well with the priorities which some of the other groups didn't.
not really sure if i have any other general advice, just experience and becoming familiar with the resources and knowing where to look...definitely didn't know lexi had all that info in the appendix before tonight haha
i felt like i didn't have a lot of the therapeutic knowledge (yet), and my partner and i spent a lot of time just figuring out what all the labs/etc meant. we obvs didn't place because we were lacking in therapeutic knowledge and all but the sshp advisor said we did really well with the priorities which some of the other groups didn't.
not really sure if i have any other general advice, just experience and becoming familiar with the resources and knowing where to look...definitely didn't know lexi had all that info in the appendix before tonight haha
I think the biggest benefit experienced by my partner and I was being exposed to resources and how to use them before the rest of our class. We got more of a hands-on experience than the rest of our class did until next semester.
We didn't win but we didn't place last either 😎
Alright, who's competing this year?
We have our competition tomorrow!
We have our competition tomorrow!
Hey I just did this! It was terrible. 
On a Saturday?!
On a Saturday?!
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Hey I just did this! It was terrible.
On a Saturday?!
For our local competition, we have the two hour portion in the morning and the oral defense after lunch.
You can tell I'm a lot busier this year since I didn't bump this thread earlier. Really looking forward to competing again. You didn't have a good time?
I don't regret it exactly, I did learn some stuff. But I thought it would be fun to have a case where I didn't get a grade. That was not my experience.
I'm competing. They assigned me to some P3. It can't be much harder than the stuff we do on Internal Med rotations.
