Better Health For All

My name is Victoria and I am a public health registrar (ST3) in Yorkshire & the Humber. I am currently on an academic placement at the University of York, where I am doing qualitative research on palliative care needs and motor neurone disease, and also collaborating with the World Health Organisation on examining the cultural contexts of health.

This is a short blog for Phase 1 registrars with tips for preparing for the Part B exam. I sat Part B quite recently (December 2017) and was fortunate enough to pass first time – these are the things that I found useful during my preparation, so hopefully other registrars will find them helpful too!

Tip 1: Focus on communication skills, not knowledge

• As the Faculty puts it – Part A is ‘know how’, and Part B is ‘show how’. Unlike Part A you don’t need to do months of learning from books beforehand; how you interact with the ‘actor’ is the most important part. Make sure you tune in to what’s important for them – even if you can’t directly address their questions make sure you acknowledge you understand what their concerns are.
• Look at the question headings in the marking guide – make sure you know what the 5 key aspects of the marking criteria are (and note that they relate to communication skills, not external knowledge!)

Tip 2: Familiarise yourself with the OSPHE set up

• The FPH website has useful guidance on exactly what happens on the day – make sure you read it in advance!
• Mock exams are very useful – mine was arranged by our local Part B rep (another registrar) and had 6 stations, with a consultant and senior registrar at each. We got feedback at the end from the examiners about every station, and although I did mine 6 months before I actually sat the exam the feedback was very valuable.
• The most important preparation I did was short practice sessions with colleagues, going through 1-2 scenarios each and getting feedback. I paired up with another registrar, who was working at health protection with me and also due to sit Part B, and arranged a session roughly once a week with a different consultant to go through a scenario each (using the FPH’s mock questions on the website). As well as being the candidate, it was also useful to role play the actor and examiner parts as this gave me more insight into what they were looking for! You also begin to appreciate how much you can say in 8 minutes (or 2-3 minutes if the question asks you to give a summary at the beginning), which helps pace the conversation better.

Tip 3: Practice writing notes in 8 minutes

• 8 minutes is not long (particularly under exam pressure!) – the more used to the time constraint you are, the easier it is to concentrate on reading and making notes in the exam.
• I had a structure for how to lay out my notes on a page so I remembered to write down important things like who I was talking to, key points to address etc.
  Although I mainly practiced using the mock questions available through the Faculty, you can practice on other things too e.g. reading a short journal article.

Tip 4: Practice tailoring your answer to a particular audience

• Different people (e.g. finance director of a CCG, medical consultant, journalist) will have a different level of understanding about particular issues, and different priorities. You need to respond to their priorities as well as making sure you get your own key message across to them in a manner they can understand/relate to.

Overall, Part B is more similar to a standard day in the office than Part A, and so preparation should be less stressful. Many of these skills you will naturally practice every time you have a conversation – the extra work needed should just focus on fitting it into the specific 8-minute exam format!

Written by Victoria Turner, Specialty Registrar in Public Health and the winner of the 2018 McEwan Award for achieving the highest grade in the Part B exam. You can follow Victoria on Twitter.