As stated in the Policy on Council Qualifying Examinations, the written theoretical examination is a Multiple Choice examination (Single best answer). The exams consist of 100 items assessing clinical knowledge in Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics& Gynecology and Pediatrics. The test is set in English and French. Examination time is four (4) hours for the whole exams given at once ; each paper consists of one hour (60 minutes) stating from 8h00 to 12h30. Mobile phone and any kind of paper are not allowed in the exams. The Exams can be only organized when at least 40 candidates have applied for the Council exams.
Candidates are allowed not more than three (3) attempts within two (2) years to complete examination and if they have still not passed, candidates will not be allowed to sit for the examination anymore.
The candidate, who is caught cheating, will be disqualified from doing RMDC exams and shall not be ever legible for RMDC Council Qualifying Exams.
The exams assess the knowledge applicable to common clinical scenario based on the standard Curriculum of Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery.
There is a practical clinical examination focused on history taking, physical examination, presenting the differential diagnosis and the patient management plan.
Clinical practice and skills are assessed using a practical examination, which consists of stations which follow the commonly used formats of an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)/ Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE). It consists of a minimum of 4 stations of at least 5 minutes each. The stations assess a sample of clinical skills needed to function as a medical practitioner. Alternatively candidates may be given real patients to examine, to assess and present to examiners. Some stations are done with the examiner present (“manned”), while others may be answered on paper (“unmanned”). Examples of manned stations include but are not limited to :
- Conducting consultations, covering common acute complaints such as sore throat, earache, headache, and common chronic illnesses such as diabetes, asthma, hypertension, epilepsy, psychiatric illness etc.
- Conducting an ante-natal consultation,
- Counseling a patient regarding issues such as HIV/AIDS, assault, bad news ;
- Performing certain examination and/or procedural skills such as examination of particular joints, examination of the eye, taking the blood pressure, instructing a patient in the use of a meter dose inhaler, assessing peak expiratory flow rate ;
- Performing mental health status assessment,
- performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, endo-tracheal intubation, or other
- Emergency procedures, etc.
Examples of unmanned stations include, but are not limited to :
- writing a prescription,
- discovering errors in a specimen prescription,
- reading an X-ray, ECG or other laboratory investigation
- assessing Road-to-health charts,
- answering questions on immunization,
- Filling a partogram
- identifying skin or genital lesions
- Approach to resuscitation
- Examining a urine specimen with some related questions, etc.
List of books to guide candidates for Council Exams
Obstetrics and Gynaecology :
1.Gynecology by 10 teachers
2.Obstetrics by 10 teachers
3.Current MoH obstetrics and Gynaecology treatment guidelines
Internal Medicine :
1.CLARK and KUMAR : Clinical Medicine
2. MACLEOD - CLINICAL METHODS.
3.MoH : Current clinical guidelines
Paediatrics :
1.Ilustrated textbook of paediatrics-Tom Lissauer
2.Tropical Paediatrics
3.Paediatrics at a Galance
4.MoH Paediatrics treatment guidelines
Surgery :
1.Primary Surgery (Volume 1 : Non-Trauma) (Vol 1) Paperback – June 14, 1990
2.MoH Surgery treatment guidelines
Candidates are not allowed to have access to the pass questions papers.
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