March 15, 2011 (Tuesday) - Specialist Portfolio

I spent a few minutes reviewing the specialist website. Specifically the advice on how to prepare the portfolio. I came up with:

How to produce a portfolio is very much a matter of personal choice, but students would be best advised to take a portfolio subject area and complete all related questions and associated work before moving to the next area. Having said that students are reminded that a lot of the work which appears in section 7.1 is again duplicated in the subsequent sections. The following is as good a way as any to attack the haematology sections. Month Topic Section covered 1 Haemocytometry 7.1 a 2 ESR and Glandular Fever 7.1 b 7.1 d 3 Haemoglobinopathies 7.1 e 7.1 f (in part) 7.4 a-c 4 Malaria 7.1f 7.4 a-c (in part) 5 Haemolytic Anaemias 7.3 a-b 6 Nutritional Anaemias 7.2 7.5 a-b 7 Haemostasis 7.1 g-j 7.7 a-c 8 Haematological Malignancies 7.6 a-b Ongoing Morphology 7.1c Perhaps recommending spending a month on each section is somewhat ambitious. Six weeks or two months may be more realistic. Students should also bear in mind that they need to perform section 6 work too, and as much of the optional blood transfusion section as they feel appropriate. Notwithstanding the above schedule, students are advised to keep their eyes open for anything which may lend itself to be written up as a case study, specifically: a patient found to have an iron deficiency-related anaemia a patient with an acquired haemolytic anaemia a patient found to have either a serum vitamin B12 or folate deficiency-related anaemia a case study of the progress of a patient found to have a haematological malignancy a patient found to be polycythaemic

Which is all very well as far as the haematology goes. The blood bank sections are still incredibly weak, as are the more general Section 6 sections.

I really need to be addressing those – I now have nine students who are (or soon will be) tackling the specialist portfolio…