Patient Based Skills Exams: Holy Crap They STILL Make Me Nervous!

So I am a patient based skills examiner on the clinic floor at Marquette. And what is a patient based skills exam? Only one of the most important things burgeoning pre-doctoral student dentists will ever do to prove themselves competent to operate independently on patients (that’s also known as…being a doctor!). In other words, a student must perform several procedures from start to finish on a patient under my supervision with NO help from me and with me GRADING each step of the procedure. And NO ONE can graduate without passing ALL of their patient based skills exams. Just a little bit of pressure on students. But it’s also a CRAP load of responsibility and pressure on ME! I must always remind myself of the procedure, each step of the procedure, each grading criteria for each step of the procedure, the rules for the testing of that procedure, etc. Do I study the rules and criteria for each exam I administer? You bet I do. Do I refer back to the rules and criteria for the procedure during the examination? Also, you bet I do! As an analogy, a pilot who has flown an airplane hundreds of times will ALWAYS go through the written start up and take off procedure on EVERY flight just so NOTHING is missed. That’s how seriously I take these exams. Why? These aren’t blind examinations. I know each and every student that I test. These are students that I have helped nurture from DAY ONE of dental school. I deeply want to see each and every student succeed and I care deeply for each my students. But I also have a responsibility to objectively administer the exam, protect the patient, protect the public and future patients, protect the profession, protect the interests of the State Dental Examining Board, protect the University, etc. I need to give my students praise only as I am allowed during the exam and I am also obligated to give students bad news should the need arise. Giving bad news is HARD and SUCKS but I HAVE to do so when needed (I try my very best to deliver bad news in as caring a way as possible and I hope it comes across that way…a great amount of teaching can arise from things that don’t go as planned).

So, when students are taking a patient based skills exam and are completely stressed out just know that…I AM TOO!!!😱