Bright-eyed, bushy tailed and full of excitingly rare diagnoses – don’t you just love them? Well ... don't you?
Are you a GP trainer? Are you close to burning out?
Why not take Professor Candid’s quiz and find out!
1. Your new GPT-1 registrar knocks on your door and informs you that he just seen a six-month-old baby with a “lump” on her arm. The registrar says this could well be a case of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.
Do you:
A) Stare at your registrar in silence until he leaves the room
B) Congratulate him on the diagnosis of the century. Where’s your pipe and deer stalker old chap? You really are the Sherlock Holmes of medicine!
C) Show him this
2. An anxious patient phones you because the registrar has told her that she may have cancer because of a mildly elevated LDH.
Do you:
A) Explore the registrar’s rationale for imparting this information as this represents a golden learning opportunity for both of you
B) Invite the registrar in to your room, play Evaporation by Shriekback and stare at them
C) Scream and swear at your registrar “You told her f***ing what? Ever heard of Occam’s razor, you bastard? You’re lucky it’s not a real one or I’d cut your throat with it!”
3. Your registrar is having their weekly teaching session. They give you the shittiest history you’ve heard in ages – something about tongue pain and a weird ankle – they then they ask you what exactly should be done about it?
Do you:
A) Explore relevant themes around knowledge acquisition and life-long learning. Diplomatically suggest that in the future – if they really want some answers – they need to be able to ask the right questions first
B) Play Soft Cell’s Say Hello, Wave Goodbye and lip sync to the words until the registrar leaves the room. Who cares if Marc Almond’s dentition is poor. You have a bromance! So what! “Take your hands off meee … heeee …”
C) Do something else entirely
4. The registrar complains that patients are Googling their vague wishy-washy symptoms, coming up with even vaguer diagnoses – like Addison’s disease – and then demanding urgent referals to specialists in the public system.
Do you:
A) Discuss helpful strategies like exploring the patient’s ideas, concerns and expectations in these types of scenarios
B) Stare silently at them
C) Laugh hysterically, slap them on the back and say something like “welcome to general practice”
5. You’re halfway through a PR exam when your wrinkleless, smooth-skinned registrar calls you. A patient’s poodle is on flucloxacillin and diazepam. Is it OK if they prescribe the same for the patient so they can get it cheaper on the PBS? They have the poodle with them so if it’s OK would you mind popping round just now?
Do you:
A) Ask the registrar to come in as a chaperone and conduct the PR examination in unbearably awkward silence. Whatever happens, nobody mention the poodle!
B) Explore the patient’s ideas, concerns and expectations and … shit, you must be kidding me!
C) Laugh merrily – after all it may be the only laugh you’re going to get today
6. You have to complete your registrars online assessment forms.
Do you:
A) Complete the CEX, Mini-CEX, DOPs, MSF, MSNHAG and ABCDFCKUXYZ and submit them online only to be told your email address is invalid
B) Go home
C) Stare silently at the online forms until they leave the room
If you have answered mainly C’s then congrats – you are indeed a burntout GP trainer!
