Pre-Writtens tutoring for the Critical Essay

 

Contact Mark Burns - at St Lukes, email: mburns@adhb.govt.nz

Mark says: "These essay practices are of value when people are underway and motivated in preparing for their exams. In my opinion the Writtens take 6 months of solid study, and so generally doing Critical Essay Questions about 4 months before the exams (over 8 weeks; one per week) has worked. I'm happy for trainees to approach me by email about 5-6 months before the Writtens to organise this."

 

 

Local consultants and ATs available for OCI practices           (organised by Chris Bampton)

 

Please find below the list of Consultants and ATs who are happy to be contacted to do practice OCIs.

 

They can be contacted via their respective DHB email addresses. An individual approach works best - mass emails to everyone on the list are likely to be ignored. Try phoning if there's no reply to an email.

 

Please note most will expect you to arrange your own client to assess, although a few may be able to offer clients from their service (but best to check this out beforehand).

 

A full practice OCI usually takes over 2 hours, with the interview, thinking time, presentation time and discussion, then feedback afterwards, not including travel time. It pays to discuss this in advance with the person examining you, to be clear where the patient will be sourced from and where the practice will happen. You'll most likely ask a colleague to help locate a suitable patient - e.g. a registrar working at that venue. Note that you or your colleague will have to book a room for the practice, in advance. We suggest that you try to arrange for at least one fellow-candidate to sit in as an observer, and remember that the presence of the examiner and any observers needs to be discussed with the patient in advance, as part of the consent process. 

 

 

Consultants:

·    Felicity Plunkett - (Director of Training - organised by phoning Rosalynn)

·    Gary Cheung (ADHB) - MHSOP  - Greenlane Clinical Centre

·    Niru Pitigala (CMDHB) - (Training Facilitator) Manukau CMHC

·    Eleni Nikolau (ADHB) - (Training Facilitator) Liaison Psychiatry Auckland Hospital

·    Tibi Csizmadia (WDHB) – (Training Facilitator) Waimaririe CMHT - North1

·    Wendy Bevin (WDHB) – Mason Clinic – Forensic

·   Jane Casey (ADHB) – FMU – Older persons’ mental health

·   Yvonne Fullerton (ADHB) – ACH – Psych Liaison

·   Diana Richardson (CMDHB) -  Middlemore - Psych Liaison

·   Lindsay Twiss (ADHB) - Manaaki – Early psychosis 

·   Chris Bampton (ADHB) – Kari Centre and Segar House – C&A, Psychotherapy, BPD/DBT

·   Cheryl Buhay (WDHB) – CMHTs West Waimarino – General adult & exam taking preparation

·   David Goldsmith (WDHB) – Mason Clinic - Forensics & Psychosis

·   Himadri Seth (WDHB) – Mason Clinic - Forensics & Psychosis

·   Meagan Ramages (CMDHB) – MHSOP - Older persons’ mental health

·   Shane White (ADHB) – CMHTs West Waimarino - General adult and psychotherapy.

 

Others you could try who've helped in the past are: Paul Jones, Wayne Miles. No harm in asking.

 

Also ask any Advanced Trainees who have passed their OCIs to be mock examiners. It's been observed that ATs who've recently sat the exams can be somewhat more critical than consultants in their assessments of practice OCIs.

 

Recording a Video of your Mock-OCI:

Another very useful pre-OCI practice to do at the start of your run-up to the OCIs  is to video yourself doing a full 50 minute assessment (optional extra is to then give yourself some 'think time' and switch the camera back on and record an exam-style presentation, then when ready also do a Management Plan presentation). Then arrange to go over the video in detail with one of the supervisors as above. Felicity is used to doing this, as is Gary Cheung and the Training Facilitators. It takes about the same amount of time as a mock-OCI. With the video version it's a lot easier to see details and get very specific feedback on your interview technique, so it's best done as an early "diagnostic" exercise to clarify what you then need to work on across the next few months. You must get written informed consent from the patient for a video to be taken, and must make sure that no other patients are ever caught on camera (e.g. at any venue with glass-walled interview rooms). The video must be erased after the feedback session. The consent form is here.

NB: You can borrow the Training Centre video camera to do this - arrange it with Rosalynn. Also, make sure that there is equipment to PLAY the video at your feedback session. If you're using the Training Centre facilities for the session and didn't use the Training Centre video camera, call Rosalynn in advance to check what's likely to work. Videos recorded on cameras can usually be plugged into the Training Centre's monitor as long as you bring the connecting cords with you or your camera takes the same standard jack as the Training Centre camera. Standard-size recorded DVDs should play on the Training Centre laptop/datashow but the mini-discs used by some cameras usually won't. It pays to drop by and check that it will play, before having the actual session.