my step 2 cs performance??

[rd31]

Hey everyone I'm freaking out a little bit. Please give me your opinion on my mistakes and likelihood for needing to repeat this exam (took it in ATL):

1. Forgot to wash hands in one encounter until AFTER the physical exam. I apologized but had gone through the exam without washing my hands and did so before I counseled her (which is probably pretty useless). She also seemed to be in pain with every exam maneuver I did, even though they were different maneuvers... I felt like I was inflicting pain (but false pain since she was acting).

2. Forgot to pull out foot rest for abdominal exam in one case, but I apologized for that.

3. Ran out of time in the middle of counseling at the end for one patient. Was a likely new diagnosis of diabetes and didn't get to go into diet/exercise/lifestyle changes.

4. Forgot to check JVD in a likely CHF exacerbation.

5. Counseled but didn't really summarize one case.

6. Didn't do neuro exam on a case of syncope, though it was most likely a cardiac or vasovagal cause based on history.

7. Didn't quite get to finish my diagnostic testing for one note. Other times I was probably excessive in the tests I listed.

Probably messed up a couple diagnoses and other smaller errors that I'm not thinking of right now.

Thanks in advance everyone. I'm trying to let this go but my mistakes are really distracting me as I'm trying to study for CK! I really hope I didn't fail this thing...

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[rd31]

anyone have some perspective? I'm mostly freaking out about forgetting the handwashing in one station and not pulling out the footrest in another in addition to the smaller errors I listed.

 

[BillySimmons]

I heard that forgetting the footrest resulted in Automatic failure. May just be the LA location though, so you're lucky.

 

[3up3down]

Hmmm I have never heard about forgetting the footrest resulting as an automatic failure. I took mine in Chicago in early July. I ran out of time on many of the cases. Often times I would ask if the patient had any other questions and the time would expire before I had the chance to answer and provide counsel. On a peds case I totally forgot to ask about family history. Worried about not doing a cardio exam for a case that possibly could have merited one. Forgot one time to ask about domestic abuse. Didn't even have time to summarize or counsel on a case because I missed the five minute warning. AND I PASSED. So, I understand your concerns (I was worried I failed too!) but you probably did fine. Just keep on reminding yourself that you just need to PASS--ie no one is going to remember to do EVERYTHING. So long as you did more things right than wrong, you'll be fine.

 

[rd31]

thanks

 

[saudades]

Honestly this exam is such a crapshoot. No one really knows what exactly you have to do to pass...I've heard people say things are automatic failures, but people end up passing after making them. I would imagine that acknowledging your mistake to the patient probably helped. Our school hammered in the foot rest/hand washing into us so I always remembered to do that, but it sounds like the rest of your list was pretty similar to mine and I passed just fine. I think everybody walks out kicking themselves a little about stuff they forgot, but just do your best to relax (easier said than done, I know) and try to focus on your current rotations or interviews or whatever.

 

[spacecat]

Ugh I just took it today and since the drive home all I can think about is all the crap I forgot to do/ask.

 

[rd31]

I passed, phew