USMLE CS - I blurbed something perhaps inappropriately..

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lovebes

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I just took my CS today.
I'm generally well liked by my patients - I mean I thrive in patient encounter, generally well liked by my patients on the ward, etc..

I was panicking so much during the CS, and I get especially angsty when I have female SPs - mostly because I'm a male.

During this one female SP, I blurbed something when I was doing an abdominal examination - a social history/OB question. As I was saying that question - which might have seemed offensive, or a normal awkward clinical question - I caught myself, nervously chuckled, and re-formulated the question and asked again, in a more clinical manner. Overall, I was courteous with her - asking permission for examination, washing my hands, rubbing them, just being polite throughout, summarizing, polite good-byes.. even so, after the abdominal examination she stopped smiling.

And then, with another SP, I completely misdiagnosed him.

I am now panicking out. If one SP finds me repulsive and thought I made an offensive remark, does that cancel out all of the work I did with other SP's, and make me fail? I heard horror stories of failing due to not washing hands, or not asking the mother to bring the baby in.. failing because of not saying or doing one thing.

Any input is much appreciated.. it's too much of a money and the exam is just ... too weird to retake it. Thanks.

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It depends on what the question was. During my exam I stumbled trying to find the best way to ask if her boyfriend beats her and it ended up with her getting the idea and smiling as she answered. I think if you just go on with your interview without dwelling on it you will be fine. It's like stage acting, if you mess up just go to your next line. That basically all you are doing anyway for cs is acting.
 
Yeah.. it was something in the line of randomly asking something about pregnancy, even though I haven't asked a single question about obstetrics during the questions. I dunno why I said it.. what I saw just automatically clicked in my brain, and I was felt I needed to say something, anything during the patient encounter.
Thanks for the comment, I feel a little better now. :)
 
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Yeah.. it was something in the line of randomly asking something about pregnancy, even though I haven't asked a single question about obstetrics during the questions. I dunno why I said it.. what I saw just automatically clicked in my brain, and I was felt I needed to say something, anything during the patient encounter.
Thanks for the comment, I feel a little better now. :)

I'm still waiting for my score. Believe me, this stupid exam causes an unnecessary amount of stress.
 
I am now panicking out. If one SP finds me repulsive and thought I made an offensive remark, does that cancel out all of the work I did with other SP's, and make me fail? I heard horror stories of failing due to not washing hands, or not asking the mother to bring the baby in.. failing because of not saying or doing one thing.

Any input is much appreciated.. it's too much of a money and the exam is just ... too weird to retake it. Thanks.
Don't hold your breath, just wait it out. No one fails because of not saying or doing just one thing, unless it's really major, or happens in every single case. Self reporting on the USMLEs is pretty poor, what with all questions being clinical on Step 1, 3 pages long on Step 2, etc. We get away with a lot in real life patient encounters, on the CS you have to be on your best behaviour, and as long as you apologise and empathise you'll usually be fine.

I'm still waiting for my score. Believe me, this stupid exam causes an unnecessary amount of stress.
It sure does. I hope it's a favourable result for both of you.
 
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