Your question on "Tips to help with performance anxiety?"

"I recently took the clinical and did not do well mostly because of performance anxiety.  Any tips to help me with performance anxiety?"   Dr B from Australia

Dear Dr B,

This is a common problem and I can certain empathize with you.  These are my simple tips on how to overcome Performance Anxiety in the OSCE Exam.

1. Obviously, prepare for the exam adequately and know your work.  Knowing your work will lead to confidence, and confidence can then override anxiety.
2. Get your mindset right.  A lot of candidates go into the exam with the mindset of "Iam the exam candidate and the people in front of me are examiners." In the GP OSCE exam, the examiners may be playing the role of patients and hence, it is essential that you adopt the mindset of "Iam the Doctor and the people in front of me are the patients.  These patients may be difficult patients but handling these situations are part of my normal everyday job as a Doctor.  The day of the exam is going to be in essence easier than my normal working day.  I will only have to see 18 patients instead of 40 like my usual day and every case will finish on time!  So it will be a relatively easy day at work!"
3. The last tip I have here is very simple but yet, still very important.  Remember to still wear your normal work clothes as this will help with your "right mindset".   

Hope this will help.  Feel free to comment on the comment section of this post and I will respond accordingly.

Dr Vin Tran
MBBS FRACGP University of Qld
Priority Health Medical Centre