Lucky sevens!

So I"ve just gotten the seventh (acceptable) miniCEX done.

Maybe I should explain myself in classic style.

-fzztwhirkdsafh;gssssssooooooooooooooooo-

The year is 2010, the month is January. We"ve just started 3rd year. Things are exciting!

Of course, to pass 3rd year, there are some small things to do. One being the dreaded miniCEX. I forget what it stands for (What"s that you say? It"s written on the top of the form? Don"t be silly.) but it seems that the powers of be have decided we must get these done.
A minimum of 8 of them.
From 4 different assessors.
From 4 different disciplines.
In the fires of Mt Doom.
Naked.
Without a spoon.

Anyway, basically the assessors grade us on basic skills such as history taking, examination skills, communication skills, clinical judgement and barking like a dog.

This is marked out of 7 for each category (7 in all) and that mark is averaged to give us a score of which they will take our best 8 (Why not another 7? Why suddenly 8?) and that average is worked out of a measly 10% of our final mark.

Hooray for jumping through hoops.

-fzztwhirkdsafh;gssssssooooooooooooooooo-

Flashforward, its August 30th, 2010.
I"m at my GP clinic for placement. Its great here! I"m enjoying a peppermint tea while slamming down a double coated Tim Tam (Amazing! Its choc-mint-melty-glory in my mouth!). My GP decides to brief me on the next patient. Briefly.

"Punch biopsy, its all yours!"

I try to appear cool, calm, collected as I"m licking the melted chocolate from my fingers and looking for a safe place to put my antidepressant branded mug.

My GP calls in the next patient.

I do what I have to. I ask my GP to kindly prepare a trolley while I clean my hands and find the necessary materials. Only moments later, I"m ready. I glove up and take a look at the patient"s back. There is a nice little mole in between some feathers. Wait. What?

"Don't ruin my tattoo!"

Oh goody. I clean the area and allow to dry. The gloves are off. Well, now they"re on again. Sterile this time.

As my GP supervises, I clean, get a biopsy and begin to suture.
After one suture is in and trimmed, I pause and see what the wound is like. I decide that it probably needs another suture (Well, I don"t really get the chance to suture all that much, so maybe it was more for my benefit...) due to the slow oozing of blood out of a tiny area. Moments later, I step back and start putting the instruments away for cleaning, the sharps in the sharps container and the rest in the bin.
My GP is still wiping the betadine off the patient and examining the wound. He says nothing.

After we send the patient off and tell her to call in a couple of days for results, he turns to me.

I almost flinch. Almost. I"m enjoying my cup of tea too much.

"How did you do that? The wound fit in with the tattoo perfectly!"

"Buh?" I eloquently replied.

"Natural talent!" He exclaims and pulls out the miniCEX form.


-ooooooooooooooooossssssg;hfasdkrihwtzzf-

And so that gives me lucky miniCEX number 7. Well, I think its the 11th in total, but lets not talk about the Unworthy Four.