2018 New Changes to UK NMC OSCE Test

Overseas nurses applying to work in the UK will no longer have to re-sit an entire competency exam if they fail only part of it.

From this week, candidates for the mandatory Objective Structured Clinical Examination will only have to retake the sections of the test that they fail.

The exam is part of a series of requirements that nurses who have trained outside the European Economic Area (EEA) have to complete before they can join the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register. It covers clinical and communication skills among other areas.

Previously, candidates were not told which of the exam’s six sections they had failed or why, while employers would have to foot the bill of almost £1,000 for the nurse to retake the entire test.

Less stress

Now non-EEA nurses will be told which part they need to repeat, and the cost of retaking it will drop from £992 per candidate for the full test to £496 for a partial re-sit.

Recruiters say the changes, to be further discussed by the NMC council at the end of the month, will reduce stress for nurses and save time and costs.

Adult nurse Febin Cyriac is business development manager for the registered nurse recruitment firm Envertiz Consultancy.

He said: ‘This is a welcome change, which I believe will reduce recruitment costs.

Poor pass rates

‘Full re-sits were very expensive for employers and incredibly stressful for nurses – how were they supposed to improve next time if they didn’t know why they had failed?’

He said the exam had made the UK an unattractive destination for nurses.

Pass rates were poor and many candidates regarded the exam as a money-making exercise, he said.

Mr Cyriac said it can cost employers £8,000 to £10,000 for every overseas nurse they employ once other tests – such as the International English Language Testing System – and NMC application fees were included.

Home Office rules

Since April 2017 non-EEA nurses can sit the exam up to three times as part of a single application to the regulator.

Failure results in the NMC closing the application, requiring the process to start again and forcing the nurse in question to wait six months before the first of the three further attempts can be taken.

Home Office immigration rules require non-EEA nurses to acquire their NMC pin number within eight months of arriving in the UK or their visa can be cancelled.

NMC update

There are three NMC approved test centres: Oxford Brookes University, the University of Northampton and Ulster University, each of which hold tests four times a year.
NMC figures show 1,499 of the exams were taken in the January-March quarter of 2018, with a pass rate of 51%.

Only 377 or 41% of the 920 candidates passed first time.

The NMC confirmed that the rule on re-sitting exams is one of a number of changes it is making in how it handles the registration process for staff from outside the EEA. It is expected to provide an update at its next council meeting on 25 July.
Source : RCN

Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital Kaduna 2018 Vacancies for Orthopedic Nurses

Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital (BDTH), Kaduna – The Management of Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital (BDTH), Kaduna invites applications from suitably qualified candidates to fill the vacant position below:

Position: Post Basic Nurse – CONHESS 7

Location: Kaduna
Field: Orthopedics

Qualification and Experience
Applicants to be employed for this position must present evidence of the following:
* Relevant certificates from recognized institutions
* Current license to practice (where applicable)
* Registration with professional body(ies)
* Evidence of NYSC discharge/exemption certificate (where applicable).

Application Closing Date
27th August, 2018.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates are required to submit ten (10) copies each of hand written Applications, detailed Curriculum Vitae and photocopies of relevant credentials. The applications and supporting documents should be in a sealed envelope, and post applied for should be written at the top left corner of the envelop and addressed to:
The Chief Medical Director,
Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital,
P.O.Box 9727, Lafiya Road,
Kaduna,
Kaduna State.

School of Nursing and Midwifery Makurdi to Become Degree Awarding Institution

The letter of approval by the State govt. for the take over of the schools of Nursing and Midwifery MAKURDI as Department of Nursing COHS BSU was handed over to the Principals of SONM. NUC will visit the new department ( schools) today 16/7/18 for resource verification. Pray for a successful exercise. Thanks. Principal SON MAKURDI

Ondo State University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital Takes off August 1, 2018

University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH) ondo State is to begin operation from August 1st, 2018 according to the release by the Interim Chief Medical Director. Below is the announcement made public by the institution :

UNIMEDTH PUBLIC NOTICE
This is to inform the general public that the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH), Ondo State, Nigeria shall commence official services to the general public on August 01, 2018 under the leadership of Dr Oluwole Ige (Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, FAO Spine Surgery) as the Interim Chief Medical Director.
The UNIMEDTH is an amalgam of Seven Hospitals which include
Four hospitals in Ondo viz: Mother and Child Hospital, Trauma and Surgical Centre, Kidney Care Centre and State Specialist Hospital Ondo
and
Three Hospitals in Akure viz: State Specialist Hospital, Millennium Eye Centre and the Dental Hospital.
UNIMEDTH will serve as;
1. A healthcare service facility for ALL cases of diseases and patient class.
2. A Training centre for Undergraduate and Postgraduate studies in all fields for medical doctors and allied healthcare professionals.
3. A Research Centre for the development of home-grown and adaptable scientific methods of health care
4. A hub for high power local and international collaborations that will engender quality training, world class research output and, manpower development and skill transfer
WE HEREBY WELCOME YOU TO THE BRAND NEW UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES TEACHING HOSPITAL, ONDO STATE.

Signed
UNIMEDTH Management
July 2018

DOH NDP: Nurse Deployment Program 2019 Application Form, Exam, Interview etc

Application for the 2019 Nurse Deployment Program will soon be out. This page will post all updates as they become available. You can check back as we update you when application becomes available

Download Free OET Materials for Doctors and Nurses in PDF

Here is a collection of materials needed for you to ace your OET exam at once.  This consists of materials needed to all aspects of OET including speaking, writing, listening and reading.

To download the free copy click the link below

OET Materials

Don’t forget to also read

Strategies for Passing OET at a Glance

Strategies and Tips I Used in Acing My OET in First Attempt

I had no idea about OET or what it was about 45-50 days prior to my exam. A friend of mine told me about OET and that it was accepted as a proof of proficiency of English language in many countries. So, I started digging around the internet about it. After a couple of days of research i found out that many people in the medicine field including doctors/nurses preferred OET over IELTS as many of them said that it was comparatively much easier. I joined a couple of OET FB pages and subscribed to the E2 OET youtube channel. Meanwhile, I also searched for coaching centers in my city where they provided coaching and training for students who wished to appear in the exam.

I watched a couple of Jay’s video and thought to myself that OET was indeed do-able. I also found out that the coaching institutes teaching OET charged a hefty sum for a month long course (40 hours to be precise). As i had taken the IELTS examination about 10 years ago (2009) and had nailed it back then, I thought to myself that i’d try to attempt OET without taking any classes, practicing on my own. So, the journey began.

It was about a month’s preparation time before i took the exam. I started watching Jay’s videos on youtube and downloaded any OET related files i could find on the web (including OET official sample tests, OET materials on FB pages, and free materials at E2 language) and started practicing them. After practicing them for about a week, just to make sure that i didn’t loose my focus, i applied for the exam which was in about 3 weeks. Since the exam fee itself is expensive, i thought to myself that if i paid for it then i would have some kind of pressure to study.

With about 3 weeks time remaining before the test day, i watched all the youtube videos of Jay on E2 OET and honestly, that helped me a lot. I practiced for about 4 hours daily on an average taking breaks in between. Initially, i used to practice reading/listening/writing….. one module each day, and about 10 days prior to my examination day, i started practicing 1 set each day.

 

Listening:

Listening part was kind of easy for me from the beginning after practicing about 2-3 sets once i got used to how to approach the task. Since i watch a lot of english movies and TV series, I think that helped me a lot with the listening sub-tests. The main idea on approaching the task in Listening part A is to write as much as you can… if u run out of blanks, use / / / to include more answers.

For listening part B, don’t leave any blanks, if u miss it, guess it. At the end of part B when you have 2 minutes time to recheck, check to see if your answer matches the blanks in terms of grammar.

Reading:

For the reading part A which is quite tough since you have only 15minutes to fill up around 30 blanks, i decided to make it a little tougher while practicing. I didn’t print out any materials and practiced reading part A using my phone and my iPad, sometimes using my phone and my computer. One would have the texts and the other would have the summary with the blanks. This way it was much more difficult, when you have to scroll the pages to search for answers and even the blanks in the summary, than when it’s on a paper.

For reading part B, its all about understanding the passage. Some questions are straight forward while others are kind of tricky and for these eliminating the options works better, trying to find the perfect match. Some questions will ask for synonyms or the word “xxx” in paragraph 2 can be best replaced by…… for such questions you need to have a very good vocabulary, if u have no idea about which one fits, try replacing the word in the paragraph with the options and see which one fits better.

Writing:

For writing, i practiced writing a lot of letters. I wrote referrals, discharge letters, transfer letters. Basically, i wrote letters for whatever kind of case notes that i came across, be it for doctors, nurses or physiotherapists. It’s all the same. What changes in different letters is the introduction sentence and the choice of relevant case notes.

TIPS : 1.To select relevant case notes, just put yourself in the shoes of the recipient of the letter and think about what information would i need if i were the recipient of the letter. For case notes that says, non-smoker, doesn’t drink…… exclude them even when you think they are relevant for cases of pneumonia/COPD or liver disease. They would be relevant if the patient was continuing to smoke or drink. Practice…..

Practice…. Practice.

2. Length of the letter does matter but only to some extent. On the exam day, I wrote 208 words in the body of my letter and scored A while a friend of mine wrote 250+ words and still managed to score B. Try to write in the 180-200 words range but don’t stress yourself if you write more than 200 words.

3. Be careful about the grammar including articles(a, an, the), and punctuation (commas, full stops).

4. At the start of every paragraph… in the first sentence…. write the name of the patient like for example, Mr. Smith presented to me……. or…… Regarding the medical history of Mr. Smith…… or…… Last week, Mr. Smith visited my clinic…… Then use pronoun (he/she/the patient) in the sentences that follow up in the paragraph.

5. While practicing writing, try to complete the task within 35 minutes including the the time you get to read the case notes. That way, you will have enough time to proof-read your letter in the end and check for grammar mistakes or any way you could re-structure the sentence to minimize word count or check to see if u have missed any relevant information you needed to include.

6. If you missed to include any relevant information, and you do not have enough time to erase the whole damn letter and re-write it….. include it at the end. Start the new paragraph or continue the last paragraph with….. Please note, that Mr. Smith is allergic to….. or ….. Please note, that Mr. Smith has been taking the following medications…… or ….. Please note, that Mr. Smith has received a shot of Morphine at 10am today…..

7. Have your letters checked from someone and get feed-backs. It will help you identify your mistakes and on how to improve.

Speaking :

Since, my wife Christina was also preparing for the exam, i didn’t have to look for a speaking partner. Her spoken english is way better than mine in terms of clarity, fluency. She helped me a lot to prepare for my speaking sub-test. We used to practice 4/4 role play cards each night. I also used to practice reading out loud from any book that i was reading which i recommend to those appearing for the exam, as it helps improve your fluency and clarity. We used to record our speaking role-plays and would listen to it after each session and discuss about the mistakes that we made. Sometimes, it would be grammar, sometimes fluency (since we are not native speakers). Its all about practice.

A week before my test day, i took a mock test at a local coaching center where they conducted classes for OET and used to give mock tests for those who wished to take the exam. The mock exam was quite similar to the real exam and the tasks were from the materials that we could find online. However, luckily for me, it were the tasks which i had not practiced yet due to time constraints. I managed to get B in all the modules and this helped me boost my confidence for the real exam.

Exam Day:

I swear it was the easiest exam i have given so far. May be I was lucky to get the easy questions. Except for the speaking module, I’m sure that I should have got all A. I am not trying to be arrogant or egoistic but the questions were too easy. If OET didn’t charge for the re-marking, i would definitely go for re-check in the listening and reading module. ;p Here’s why:

Listening Sub-test:

For Part A – i didn’t leave any blanks and filled up most of the answer blanks using / / to include more answers than what was required and honestly speaking, i’m sure i included the relevant information what was asked in the question

For Part B – I had 2 blanks in the whole part B which i filled up taking a guess (certainly were wrong) but at the 2 minute time given to recheck, i checked for grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes (including “s” or “es” for plurals). The topic was on coronary bypass surgery i think.

Reading Sub-test:

Part A: I was too damn lucky in this part. The topic was on Gout and it had only 23 blanks…….. I was confused in the beginning and even turned the paper checking every page to look for questions. I had completed this part very early and had time to go through it twice even before they announced that 5 minutes were remaining. I checked for grammar, plural/singular, tense of the words/phrases i was putting in the blanks and reading the whole summary to check if the words/phrases i put in made sense.

Part B: This part was not so different form that which i had been practicing. It wasn’t easy, but neither was it very difficult. There were 19 blanks all together and since we have enough time to process the paragraph and understand the question, i don’t think i could have made so many mistakes to get a B.

Writing Sub-test:

Once again God was very generous upon me. The case note was on Acute Cholecystitis and I had to write a letter of referral to a General Surgeon. Since, I am a General Surgeon myself and have been practicing surgery for about 3 years now, it was very easy for me to select relevant case notes and know which information to include and which to discard. I wrote the letter and ended up with 208 words. I tried to decrease the word count to 200 but i found that changing few sentences decreased the sweetness of the letter (hope u know what i mean) and then i decided to go with the 208 word count letter in the end. I guess my judgement not to decrease the word count was correct.

Speaking Sub-test:

This part of the test worried me. Since I am not a native speaker, I have a problem with fluency……… i include a lot of fillers while speaking (ummm….aahhh). I tried to minimize them as much as i could. I tried to speak slowly so as to take time utilizing the full 5 minutes but my interlocutor was speaking very fast. She had a good command over the language and spoke very fast, fluently and with clarity. This made me a little nervous as i was trying to catch up with her speed. What happens when you are trying to communicate with someone in English(given you r not a native speaker), if their english is poor….. you tend to speak broken english, similarly if their spoken english is good, you try to speak in a good tone, keeping in mind about the grammar and if they speak fast then you try to catch up with their speed. This happened to me and while trying to catch up with her speed and fluency, i had to correct myself 2-3times….. correcting my grammar.

For the 1st roleplay…. i had to talk to a mother of a 8 year old suffering from sun-burn. Task were to reassure the mother, inform about the condition and future precautionary measures.

For the 2nd role-play……. The setting was in a hospital Emergency department…… a carpenter’s apprentice had cut his finger while at work…… task were to talk about suturing as the patient didn’t want suture, convince the patient to get the suture, patient had never taken tetanus injection and is unwilling, so had to convince the patient to take the tetanus shot, talk about the recovery time and the possibility of infection and precautionary measures.

 

Overall it was a good experience and I’m glad that i’m done with it and now can move on to better things. If you have any queries, please drop them in the comment section and i’ll try to answer them all.

For those who ask, how much preparation time is needed…… my answer is simple….. it all depends on you. For me, it took a month, some might get it done in 2 weeks, for others it might take longer. It all depends on your level of English.

Congratulations to all those who cleared the OET exam this time and wish everyone a very good luck who are preparing for the upcoming exams.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

 

Sent in by someone who wants to remain anonymous

WHO Global Survey on Compassionate Nursing Care

Have you experienced compassionate care at a health facility level? Are you a health worker who has been involved in the delivery of compassionate care? Are you a hospital/district/regional health manager who has designed programmes on compassionate care? Are you interested in incorporating compassion as part of an organizational culture? Are you interested in integrating compassionate care into national health policy?
If you answered YES to any of the above, the WHO Global Learning Laboratory (http://www.who.int/servicedeliverysafety/areas/qhc/gll/en/) team would love to hear from you.
Submit your thoughts to GLL4QUHC@who.int on how compassion can enhance quality across the various levels captured above.
The deadline for submitting your thoughts is 31 Aug 2018, midnight GMT.
This is your chance to share your experience with a broad audience of users, health workers, managers and decision makers. Responses from this co-development call will feed into a focused session on Compassion – the heart of quality people-centered health services at the 35th International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) conference to be held in Malaysia this year.
Submit your thoughts (mailto:GLL4QUHC@who.int?subject=How%20compassion%20can%20enhance%20quality%20)

The Nurse as Patient Advocate: What I Did When My Patient Had No Clothes

It required no skill. No critical thinking. Nothing that my degree in nursing prepared me for. As a new nurse, sometimes I feel as though caring is all I have to offer. Well, that and a lot of questions on every shift.

My patient had just received a devastating diagnosis of metastatic lung cancer. He was not home in comfort. He was sitting alone in a hospital room, wearing the slightly awkward — albeit necessary — fashion trend known as the dreaded hospital gown. All he wanted were some real clothes, namely the clothes in the gym bag in his car, to make the hospital a little less hospital-y. On his admission to the hospital, he was wearing street clothes. But in the shuffle of moving him from the ED up to the floor, we lost all his belongings.

Dayshift and night shift were diligent about calling security and sending someone outside into the frigid winter for the last 6 shifts to find his Buick LeSabre. His Buick was parked in one of the hospital parking lots by the outpatient clinic on the other side of the hospital per report of the patient. Per report of security, however, it was nowhere to be found.

After I had gotten report, I realized it was my turn to call security and do my part. When I made the call, they were quite resistant about heading outside in the sub-zero temperatures. I told them I’d go with them. I had made a new friend in Ute, a security guard. As kind as she was, she did not understand — or share — my excitement about fulfilling my patient’s wish. Still she went, and because she went, I say hello to her fondly every time I see her in passing.

The hospital has two moderately large sides to it: the inpatient hospital side, and the outpatient clinic side. In order to cut across the snowy ice land outside, Ute and I took a shortcut through the sky bridge that connects the two sides. I felt like a kid along for the ride since I offered no expertise on how to navigate the hospital’s winding and confusing corridors and staircases that never seem to lead where I want them to take me.

Although Ute very obviously thought it trivial, she ventured out with me and remained with me the entire time in good spirit. We finally found my patient’s LeSabre right where he described: in the lot outside Same Day Care, covered with at least 2 feet of snow. I smiled brightly and could not contain my enthusiasm. I cannot speak for Ute, but for me this unbridled enthusiasm helped make the burden of digging the car out of the snow more than bearable.

I came back on the floor clad in my winter coat and wool mittens. But most importantly, I came back with my patient’s gym bag slung over my shoulder. True shock and awe swept across his face at my willingness to achieve such a feat. He went to sleep that night still in a hospital bed, but in his own clothes.

Our patients’ goals are often not our own. When we failed him and lost his possessions, this revealed our inability to hold both at the same time. We lost sight of him like we lost sight of his clothes. Our goals medically involve fixing the very narrow and often impossible problem that our patient presented to us. This is a fallacy. Because no one has just one problem that can be fixed. If we view our role as a nurse as a fixer, we will burn out faster than it takes to become an expert in our field. If we view our role as a collaborator, and hold honoring patient goals higher than our own, we cast aside a very heavy weight. We no longer have to fix; we simply have to honor. When we place ourselves as equal to our patients instead of higher than, we accomplish such a feat. With every simple act in nursing, we can always honor.

Honoring this patient did require effort. Honoring this patient did require both physical and psychological discomfort. Honoring this patient required advocacy at its core. Honoring this patient required a nurse.

Source :
Danielle Gillaspie, RN, BSN
Oncology Nurse Advisor

Ghana Nursing Council Suspends Training of Nursing Assistants Program

The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana in consultation with the Ministry of Health has announced the suspension of the training of Nurse Assistance (Clinical) and Nursing Assistance (Preventive) effective 2019/2020 academic year.

This follows the outcome of a desk review meeting held by the Ministry, Nurses and Midwifery Council, Ghana Health Service, Christian Health Association of Ghana, Teaching Hospitals and other stakeholders in respect of the health sector needs for these cadre of staff, of which the statistics show that there are adequate numbers of NAC/NAP Practitioners for the health sector.

This was affirmed during a Human Resource Forum held by the Ministry of Health early this year at the Capital View Hotel in Koforidua to review the country’s Human Resource needs for the various cadre of Nurses and Midwifes in the country among others.

A statement signed by the Registrar of the Nurses and Midwifery Council, Felix Nyante said “It was in this regard that the quotas for admissions of these programmes have been reducing since the last academic year.”

“The aim of this regulatory policy is to streamline the and strengthen the Degree and Diploma awarding Programmes in Nursing and Midwifery in order to improve the standard of practice of Nursing and Midwifery.”

The statement further advised all Deans, Heads and Principals of Nursing and Midwifery Training Institutions to plan towards the folding up of these programmes if their institutions are currently running such programme(s).

Source: kasapafmonline.com