Primary Care Consultation

Course Description

An essential element of any health care system is primary health care. Primary care consultations involve regular meetings and check-ups with a primary care physician using a comprehensive, longitudinal approach to the patient.

The primary care physician, as the name implies, is the patient’s first contact and provides general health advice and promotes specialized care in case of more serious illnesses and injuries. The scope of practice is broad and can act on a wide range of issues, including chronic or acute conditions, but also preventive care.

The Primary Care Consultation course includes cases in several areas, namely, endocrinology, nephrology, respiratory, allergology, and cardiology.

Course Overview

• 5 Modules
  • 5 virtual patient cases of an intermediate level of complexity
• Average Time to practice (per module)
  • Clinical Scenario: 20 minutes per attempt (3 attempts: 60 minutes)
  • Final attempt (if applicable): 20 minutes
  • Multiple Choice Question: 5 minutes
  • Feedback Area: 10 minutes
  • Learning Objectives and Scientific References: 5 minutes
  • Debriefing Video: 10 minutes
• Online, Self-paced
  • You have up to 2 months to complete the 10 modules at your own pace. The course can be accessed through Body Interact at any time.
• Certificate of Completion
  • After completing the course, you will receive a Certificate of Completion that can be added to your CV or Resume.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize early symptoms of serious illnesses
• Distinguish between self-limiting illnesses and problems that require further medical intervention
• Perform effective history taking, physical examination, and diagnosis based on current clinical evidence
• Communicate with a variety of patients identifying diagnoses and counselling to prevent illness
• Order tests and prescribes appropriate medical therapy

Clinical Competencies

Safety

• Universal safety measures procedures
• Promote patient safety
• Establish drug dosing for common medications
• Write prescriptions (including controlled drug)

Airway and Breathing

• Basic airway management
• Respiratory rate and rhythm assessment and interpretation
• Oximetry interpretation
• Basic spirometry (vital capacity, FEV 1 and interpretation)
• Thorax (shape, movement, diameter, ribs and diaphragm)
• Lung (percuss, fremitus, auscult and qualities of air sound, lobar locations) examination

Circulation

• Assess and interpret pulse (rate, rhythm and volume) and blood pressure
• Detect heart murmurs and identify S1 (tricuspid, mitral) and S2 (pulmonary, aortic) heart sounds and detect S3, S4 gallops

Disability

• Assess mental status (level of arousal, response to auditory stimuli, to visual stimuli, noxious stimuli)
• Cranial nerves assessment
• Blood sugar measurement and interpretation

Exposure

•Assess height and weight
• Lymph node assessment
• Cornea and anterior chamber assessment
• Gait and station and sensation assessment
• Skin test interpretation
• Motor function (voluntary movements, reflex withdraw, spontaneous, involuntary movements, tone)
• Interpretation of lab tests (Liver function, Renal function, Fluid/Electrolyte, Cardiac enzyme, Hematocrit, Arterial Blood Gas, coagulopathy rate interpretation, Lipid test, urinalysis, Thyroid test)
• Interpretation of imaging tests (Chest x-ray, Electrocardiogram interpretation, Ultrasonography, Nuclear imaging techniques, Computed tomography (CT) and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) result interpretation…)
• Abdominal examination (inspect, auscult, percuss and palp)
• Abdominal bruit
• Lens (clarity, artificial iol) and Disc (color, edges, size and shape) examination
• Ophthalmoscopic examination of fundi and retinae interpretation
• Nutrition management

Module 1 – Unexplained weight loss

Context: The various symptoms presented by a patient may reveal clinical conditions that are critical. Early detection reduces morbidity and mortality by preventing or delaying possible complications. A greater understanding of the clinical conditions underlying the presenting symptoms can result in more patient-specific and tailored management.
Virtual Scenario: Mr. Townsend has been relatively healthy his whole life. However, recently he started to notice unexplained weight loss and is thirsty most of the time.

Module 2 – Angina episode status

Context: The risk of progression or development of recurrent coronary artery disease after an acute episode is frequent and surveillance in the first few months is essential. Direct patient education is important and should be reinforced and documented.
Virtual Scenario: About a month ago, Adelaide required emergency medical care due to unstable angina. Today she has her first appointment for long-term health care management.

Module 3 – Respiratory complaints

Context: Lung diseases can have diverse clinical presentations from multiple causes, including airflow limitation that may or not be reversible. Patients with these clinical conditions are at increased risk for developing comorbidities and their surveillance is critical.
Virtual Scenario: Mr. Bernard felt unwell a few months ago, and his health was not improving. He visited his General Practitioner, who referred him to a visit with Pulmonologist.

Module 4 – Medical appointment for follow-up

Context: The presence of inherited conditions might be characterized by its recurrence. In this case, it has to be followed by a family medicine physician since the condition can be potentially fatal. The type, frequency, and severity of attacks vary between patients, and throughout the life of an individual.
Virtual Scenario: Anthony is being followed by an allergy/immunology outpatient clinic.

Module 5 – Easily fatigue

Context: Fatigue is one of the most common complaints in medicine. Fatigue can be related to physical but also psychological symptoms. The anamnesis is very important to find out the meaning of the patient’s condition.
Virtual Scenario: Mr. Alexander has not been feeling well lately. In the past few months, his daily activities have been increasingly more difficult. Finally, his wife noticed he wasn’t well and persuaded him to visit his doctor.