5 phrases and questions to avoid in PLAB2

PLAB2 is not just about clinical knowledge but also about interpersonal skills and holistic management of the station. Just as important as knowing what to say, is to know what not to.Here are a few common phrases and questions that PLAB 2 candidates end up saying but really should not.

• ‘May I ask you some questions?’   

As a PLAB2 candidate, you may think it is quite alright a question but just step back and reconsider. Is this what you say to a patient when they come to see you in your daily practice? No, right? When a patient comes to a doctor, they expect the doctor to ask questions and saying this just feels odd.

On the other hand, ‘May I examine you?’ before conducting a physical examination is the right thing to ask as you need to confirm consent.

• ‘May I ask you some private questions?’ or ‘May I ask you some personal questions?’

You have been told to signpost before asking questions that switch context of the discussion from the medical issue to lifestyle questions or sexual history and it makes sense but saying ‘May I ask you some personal questions?’ followed by ‘Do you drink alcohol?’ just comes across as very strange. It might even make the patient feel that it is something to be embarrassed about. ‘I’d like to ask/enquire/learn about your lifestyle habits’ may be a more natural thing to say.

• ‘May I confirm your name and age please?’

It is a consultation and not an interrogation and while you may think it important to confirm the name and age, it does not come across as a natural thing to ask. You have the patient’s name on the task card outside the station, so you already know their name and age. If you want to ask because you don’t know if Jon Snow would like to be called ‘Jon’ or ‘Mr Jon’ or ‘Mr Snow’, you may ask instead ‘What would you like me to call you?’ which is more conversational and not interrogative. And once they tell you to call them Jon, stick to it.

• ‘Everything you tell me will be kept confidential’

This is not a wrong statement but when used too frequently or out of context, it becomes inappropriate. The mistake that candidates make is using this statement every time they are not getting the response they expect or too soon into a consult to rush it up. Use it sparingly only when you think confidentiality is the reason the patient may not be divulging information.

• ‘I’ll discuss with my senior’

You may think- ‘..but isn’t that what safe doctors do?’ You are right but as in the previous point, saying this out of context can be very odd. All the stations are designed with FY2 level in mind and you are expected to know and impart advice based on that. Where the situation needs intervention by a senior, you may mention the same but let’s say when a patient asks you for a solution to his employment as a driver because DVLA is restricting him from the same and you say ‘I’ll discuss with my senior’, it is absolutely inappropriate.

If you take the PLAB2 consults as a day in your medical practice and be yourself, everything you say will sound natural. If you use pre-rehearsed lines that you don’t naturally use, it will be very hard to mask the artificiality of them. Be yourself! Be natural!