I wonder if there is anyone out there who, like me, who has been slogging through the NMC application process and has taken or will take the OSCE? Are any of you ANGRY about the OSCE? I am.
Those of us applying to be registered in the UK have been put through the ringer, been vetted in every way imaginable (references, one year of practical experience required, education hours, training hours, IELTS, etc), and the fact that they add a practical test on top of that is just redundant, unnecessary, and a huge waste of time and resources for everyone. Especially amid the UK nursing shortage, when they should be facilitating the immigration of well-qualified nurses, not hindering us!
I recently took the OSCE and failed the skills section for absolutely bogus and arbitrary reasons. But before finding out that I had a "partial fail", I initially came out of that test feeling confident, like I had done well, and there is no way they would judge me to be an incompetent nurse. But despite my feeling that I performed well, I also emerged from the test simultaneously angry and frustrated, for having just committed 5 weeks of my life to stressing, floundering through disorganized, overabundant study materials on the Nile website, and traveling across the world... all for a test that clearly has nothing to do with assessing a nurse's competence. All the OSCE succeeds in testing is our willingness to jump through meaningless hoops and pay excessive fees!
The fact that we are subjected to this psychological roller coaster is infuriating... especially from an organization whose bedrock is the holistic caretaking of all people!
And why the exorbitant fees? Why do we have to repay the fee if we sit again for the test? Exactly whose pockets are we lining? The whole thing just rubs me the wrong way.
I'm just appalled at what I and others have been through with the OSCE. I plan to appeal my test result and also lodge a complaint both with the University of Northampton and the NMC, who are the controllers of the OSCE. If anyone is interested, I will share what I write, and I encourage ANYONE who is frustrated to write to the NMC and make yourself heard!!!
I failed the examination and had to re-sit it fully. I should have only taken APIE but ANTT came in. I failed in ANTT because I did not clean the trolley well. What the!!
It's a complete fast the UoN osce. The English trained nurses don't have to sit their osce there. It no use complaining g as it falls on death ears at the NMC and the UoN.
I have given up now. Not going to throw them any more money.
I failed on drawing up medicaion. I appealed it and sent in the NHS guidelines to them as that is what I followed but they wouldn't change their decision the whole thing is bogus.
Cleaning the trolley is a fast because when I did mine they stopped me cleaning the bottom shelf I argued with that with them to.
They just find anything to fail you on. I don't have any faith in their marking criteria at all.
I sat it 2x first one was a partial fail then a full fail. .
I will not reapply. I am a far better nurse than those taking the exam. . I Proably have more experience to. Just can't be bothered anymore.
I failed on drawing up medicaion. I appealed it and sent in the NHS guidelines to them as that is what I followed but they wouldn't change their decision the whole thing is bogus.
Cleaning the trolley is a fast because when I did mine they stopped me cleaning the bottom shelf I argued with that with them to.
They just find anything to fail you on. I don't have any faith in their marking criteria at all.
I sat it 2x first one was a partial fail then a full fail. .
I will not reapply. I am a far better nurse than those taking the exam. . I Proably have more experience to. Just can't be bothered anymore.
I just took the examination just today. It is a full resit. And I am really bothered with one thing that I was not able to do. Putting the GCS score of my patient. And I know that they have pedantic not to mention absurd reasons to fail someone. If I fail then I am not sure as to what steps I am going take. I could opt to go for a 3rd exam but I have to redo everything again. I really feel frustrated with this examination.
I just have received my re-sit results and I have failed again. Apparently I did not check the respiratory rate although I obviously stood there for an entire minute, holding my fob watch and looking at the patient (for respiratory rate), my mistake was not verbalising what I was there for. They say treat the actor as a normal patient- when I look after a 'normal' patient, I don't tell him that I am counting his RR as this could make him uncomfortable and make him breathe faster or slower than normal. I am so annoyed and upset! I came out of that exam room thinking I more than likely passed it as all the errors that I knew I made on my first attempt I had rectified and there was not much I would have changed and if there was, they were very minimal and would not put a patient at risk. I would love to know what marks they give and what they take away for little mistakes and how they affect the overall mark.
They should take into consideration that people are gonna forget little things because after all, being in an examination environment would make anyone nervous and would cause them to forget things (maybe not forget doing them, just forget to verbalise what they are doing). To be fair, a couple of the examiners asked me to verbalise what I was doing when I was obviously doing something, but the first one in the assessmwnt part never said anything. If I was an assessor and I saw a student or examinee doing something, I would ask them what they were doing just to be fair to them. If you see someone doing something and you want to make sure they are doing what you think they are doing, you would ask, wouldn't you? I suppose that's why I am an examinee not an examiner! Just got to pick myself up, dust myself off and remind myself that IAmAFabNurse! í ½í¸€
Andrei15
115 Posts
I failed the examination and had to re-sit it fully. I should have only taken APIE but ANTT came in. I failed in ANTT because I did not clean the trolley well. What the!!