PRELUDE
I am writing this to become a better
doctor. To be able to function at the level of a consultant. There is no
fixed syllabus. There are only outlines of topics that a consultant
kinda needs to know about. It seems like an impossible task, but
medicine is ultimately based on real life, and it cannot deviate from
that. Medicine changes, but human beings do not evolve that quickly. I
have 10 years of experience behind me, along with studying for the
exams, which are based on real life, and will stay true to reality.
This project is an integration of all previous study documents for
consultant level exams, namely my collection of clinical decision making
tools and copypastable templates, ECG archives, ABG archives, and
collections of structured assessments and multiple choice questions.
This aims to be the final set of notes in my career. It will be
updated as appropriate and once complete I will look into versioning and
QI.
APPROACH
The topics are wide, and the
knowledge required could be extremely focused at times. Remembering
lists is meaningless. Everything has to be in working memory, well
understood and structured to allow for rapid access on the floor. Quick.
Intuitive. Practical. To achieve the required amount of practical
working knowledge, basic principles are to be employed. The structure is
similar to that of the International Baccalaureate diploma, in that
each theme is broken up into chunks with a progression of concepts and
logical themes.
The separation of themes differ from
traditional textbooks and references as they are oriented around
clinical relevance and application. Compartmentalizing information in
clinically relevant areas of working memory is a key goal of this
project.
As this project focuses on real life, many topics
are deliberately superficial and to the point. There are also some
topics that end up being oddly specific and detailed as they are
relevant to clinical practice.
- Chunking. Breaking up each topic in to bite sized pieces that could be integrated into working memory. Each topic should be reviewable in about 1 hour.
- Minimising cognitive load.
- Pictures / diagrams / illustrations / questions*
- Each topic has to flow in a logical progression of thinking – from fundamental concepts to complex themes.
- Each topic starts with a question or clinical scenario – because that’s how real life works.
- Cutting out the noise: Information relevant to practical real life clinical decision making is to be included.
- Portability – if a presentation needs to be done on one of the themes, easily copy-pastable into a powerpoint.
PERMALINK
https://www.ezralimm.com/p/pmo.html