NOTE: I POSTED THIS IN PLAB GROUP ON THURSDAY NIGHT…SOME OF YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN IT…I WAS TOLD THAT IT WILL BE TAKEN DOWN AS SEEMS TO BE AN INCIDENT HAPPENING FOR MANY OTHERS SUPPORTING COMMON STATIONS… SURELY SATURDAY MORNING THE POST WAS GONE… WHAT IS SURPRISING IS THE POST, WHICH WAS POSTED FROM A FAKE ACCOUNT , TO WHICH I REPLIED IS STILL UP.
DUE TO THE BIAS OF A FACEBOOK GROUP I AM POSTING IT HERE TO HELP THE FUTURE PLABBERS MAKE AN INFORMED DECISION
My name is Dr Salman Nazir. I am an international medical graduate from Pakistan, Lahore CMH. I am not a fake ID. My name is not PLAB June or any other imaginary person. In the last few weeks, ive seen a few posts published in this facebook group so I felt responsible to write this. I am not active in social media nor am I one for Facebook but I see it as my moral duty to share what I experienced. I had my PLAB in 2017 and I studied in Common Stations taught by Dr Hamed. I have started my training post as a GP in August 2018.
1 – The strangest thing that I read was that Dr Hamed only teaches history taking. This is absolutely wrong and the most bizarre thing I have read in one of the reviews which I don’t believe for once second that anyone would buy this. This only reinforces the point that the person who is writing all this either is not real or if they are they are painting an untruthful image of everything. The bigger the lie the easier it is to swallow! This may be the very implication of this saying, maybe to couple of vulnerable or naïve people this may really have an effect. I want to ask you then who taught us how to counsel the patient? Who taught us to deal with ethical stations? Who taught us how to deal with angry patients, difficult patients, difficult relatives and difficult colleagues? Who taught us how to approach non-accidental injury, elderly negligence and domestic violence? Who taught us how to assess patient’s mental capacity? Who taught us how to be a safe doctor? Who taught us the guidelines and UK protocols? Who taught us how the NHS works? Who taught us how to apply for training posts? Most importantly, who taught us ethics, respect and professionalism and how to act as a real doctor? These are the very things that completely contradict what you say making me think that you are not one of his actual students. Who improved our interpersonal skills for 12 days consecutively hammering into us how to show sympathy, empathy, how to care about patients’ comfort and how to pick up non-verbal cues. My friends who had joined the course recently even now tell me that Dr Elmira is holding simulation training for improving interpersonal skills and the teaching of. This is one of the things which we did not have showing the ongoing improvement of this course.
LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, I USED WHAT HE TAUGHT ME IN MY GP OSCE EXAM AND NOT ONLY DID I PASS MY GP EXAM WITH FLYING COLOURS, USING ALL THE APPROACHES DR HAMED TAUGHT ME BUT ALSO I GOT FULL MARKS IN INTERPERSONAL SKILLS IN ALMOST ALL THE STATIONS I HAD.
2 – It has also been said that Dr Hamed will ask people to read and memorise the script. That was exactly what he was NOT doing. He taught us how to take history in a different way, how to approach the patient systematically by doing examinations and investigation, he taught us the framework and the skeleton for what we would later learn and how to manage our time when we reached the management with the patient. He told us that the script was just an example of a scenario. CAN THERE BE ANY LIE BIGGER THAN THIS THAT DR HAMED MAKES PEOPLE MEMORISE THE SCRIPT?
3 -I heard Dr Hamed is not punctual and the class lasts a long time. It was not the case in my batch and I should tell you that I was not detached from the academy since I have passed my exam because a lot of my colleagues from CMH attended Common Stations, and I never got any such feedback from them furthermore, I can vouch for that as I also had the honour to help him for a couple of days this year in my free time (maybe 3 or 4 days) and it was certainly not the case during that time. You lost the point – this man will teach almost every day of his course. Even if he came one day a couple of minutes late, something which I have not heard of is it a big deal? I heard in that post, that class never finishes earlier than 10pm. All of us knew that he basically lives in his academy. After class he started the other roles such as looking after those who have already done the course and waiting for their exams, arranging their mock exams, dealing with the new stations etc. It seems that you’ve forgotten that the GMC has added so many new stations last year. It has been in an unprecedented way; the amount of new stations being released so much so that it was unmanageable for a lot to keep up with. Who expected all of that? He had two choices, either to teach them or not to teach them. And of course, when he wanted to teach them the students can stay a little longer. However, if someone for example had travel issues for that day they can leave earlier from the class and collect the notes the day after. When stations were being added daily for example when there were 6 new stations added in one exam day it was only logical for him to add the stations as part of his classes which would of course add time to the hours. Obviously I think that when the PLAB 2 exam stabilses things will run smoother. A few colleagues of mine who were university friends sat in the last couple of batches and all of them told me that apart from one day of the review class the average time for class to finish was between 8 to 9pm.
4 – It’s been said that Dr Hamed is rude. Don’t ask me, ask all of his students. He is one of the most polite, humble and selfless people I know. We know when it comes to the class he is very strict, if one person wants to clown around and make fun out of something which interferes with the learning of others, he may be very strict because he always says that he’s responsible for all people and that it is his duty to look after the entire class.
5 – Contrary to what people say that Dr Hamed does not take lightly to criticism he does, and I will give you an example. During my time the number of stations were little and he used to dictate in class which I found very useful for me. When the stations were increased there was a lot of demand to have printed notes as to not use time writing down, which he started doing soon after my time.
6 – I was a witness of Dr Hamed’s and Dr Elmira’s hard work to update the colleagues about the new stations and the new guidelines. Once the new stations come he talks with consultants in his hospital. Literally when it comes to people’s exams he talks to everyone if they can help to improve the quality of education that he provides. He has called me a few times after I started working and asked me Salman if that is the case, how do you approach? what do you think you should do? I can remember once that when my wife was working in the care of elderly he and Dr Elmira called her to ask about a few local guidelines and forms that come up in the care of geriatrics. This is the reason that Dr Hamed’s notes are more up to date than others and in a lot more detail, so much so that you can even use them as a reference in specialist exams. Another point of his which is an advantage rather than what some having been making out as a weakness is how detailed his teaching material is which has been described as “overwhelming” by some. This trial from Plab that we are seeing is a version of the upcoming UK MLA examinations which means that the exam is becoming distressingly difficult meaning the need for updated guidelines, and all we know is that the bulleted pointed and oversimplified notes no longer work.
ALL IN ALL, HE KNOWS ABOUT THIS PLAB 2 EXAM. NOT ONLY WHAT HE HAS TAUGHT ME HELPED ME TO GET MY GP TRAINING POST – HE MADE ME A BETTER DOCTOR.