Foundation Application 2010

[thepriceofreality]

Anyone had a look at the q's? initial thoughts?

[pacdorme]

I thought they were quite fair, glad I didn't waste anytime with extracurricular stuff in order to bolster my CV!

[belis]

Could be worse I suppose. Could be a lot better as well. Not much of a chance to show off any extraculicular activities. I am also slightly concerned about providing evidence to back up my answers. It's not as if I have obtained a witness steatment every time I have seen an acute admission or a patient that is not happy with their treatment. I can think about few good examples but how do I prove that they were real encounters?

[Manana]

Could be worse I suppose. Could be a lot better as well. Not much of a chance to show off any extraculicular activities. I am also slightly concerned about providing evidence to back up my answers. It's not as if I have obtained a witness steatment every time I have seen an acute admission or a patient that is not happy with their treatment. I can think about few good examples but how do I prove that they were real encounters?

Your portfolio? This would be perfect to use for the application process as the event is documented and also signed off by your portfolio tutor.

If you don't have this, then identifying when and where the event took place, the circumstances, and the clinical lead should suffice. If they are unhappy with this then they can call you for interview - I think this would be unlikely unless the scorers felt that you had described something that was clearly outwith a 5th yr student's ability / competence.

Nobody is expecting witness statements but they do need to have some sense that you are describing a real event and not something you made up that sounds good or that you've plagiarised from somewhere.

I heard that last year 8 people withdrew their applications when asked for evidence to support what they'd written. It's inevitable that some people will try and cheat their way through - I think it's good that there is random verification process as well as the flagging up of dubious answers to questions.

[thepriceofreality]

I am also slightly concerned about providing evidence to back up my answers. It's not as if I have obtained a witness steatment every time I have seen an acute admission or a patient that is not happy with their treatment. I can think about few good examples but how do I prove that they were real encounters?

indeed - i don't know how theyre going to do that :S i guess if you try to use examples of patients you used for portfolio case studies then you could use those as evidence. Think, that's what I'm going to do.

[belis]

Our portfolio entries are not signed off or verified in anyway therefor I can't see how having a reflective piece about a situation is any sort of proof that it really happened. Witness steatment was given here The Foundation Programme - Story as an example of possible evidence they may be asking for.

[Manana]

Our portfolio entries are not signed off or verified in anyway therefor I can't see how having a reflective piece about a situation is any sort of proof that it really happened. Witness steatment was given here The Foundation Programme - Story as an example of possible evidence they may be asking for.

Some of them are - my sister is a 5th year at Manchester and her portfolio tutor signs it off at review meetings. Her portfolio tutor has been telling her for the past year that she should use the portfolio as a resource for completing this form. It's odd that there's such a disparity of experience at Manchester.

I don't see patients ever being asked for witness statements. It would be reasonable to ask another member of the clinical team for a statement if it was relevant to the scenario that you'd described.

[ISCMEDICAL]

Some of them are - my sister is a 5th year at Manchester and her portfolio tutor signs it off at review meetings. Her portfolio tutor has been telling her for the past year that she should use the portfolio as a resource for completing this form. It's odd that there's such a disparity of experience at Manchester.

I don't see patients ever being asked for witness statements. It would be reasonable to ask another member of the clinical team for a statement if it was relevant to the scenario that you'd described.

You cannot breach the patient's confidentiality and therefore would not be allowed to give the name of the patient. What they would do is write to you to get the names of consultants or nurses or other people involved in the care of that patient to ask them to confirm your story.

To my knowledge, about 10% of answers get checked.

[Manana]

To my knowledge, about 10% of answers get checked.

Yes, 10% are randomly audited. There's a facility to audit additional applications if the markers query the answers given.