Primary Medical Care and Long Term Conditions

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Take a focused history in order to reach a differential diagnosis
• Have gained understanding regarding the presentation and impact of some common long term conditions/ disabilities which are often managed in primary care
• Understand the use of time as a diagnostic tool
• Understand and have experience of the principles and methods of improvement including audit, and how to use the results of audit to improve practice
• Show an understanding of the duties of confidentiality in your contact with colleagues and patients
• Demonstrate respect for patients and colleagues
• Interact with patients and colleagues whose cultural backgrounds, beliefs and values may differ from your own in a sensitive and non-judgmental manner
• Show awareness of a wide variety of ways in which you learn in the workplace, often not defined by the curriculum, and which includes role models
• Take responsibility for your own learning and your continuing professional development
• Demonstrate an ability to reflect and use appropriate resources including IT to support your own learning and aid patients’ understanding
• Understand the concept of the primary care team and have an awareness of the roles of its members
• Demonstrate competency in the clinical skills as per the student portfolio requirements
• To recognise symptoms and signs of common diseases seen in primary care
• Conduct an appropriate examination and communicate with the patient including patients and relatives of those who have a cognitive or sensory impairment.
• Explain the use of clinical investigations and their impact on the patient and health services
• Assess and recognise the severity of a clinical presentation and a need to immediate emergency care
• Develop insight into your learning needs in the professional workplace and recognise the need for support and guidance in managing challenging situations; and reflect on your own learning style and how it may need to be adapted to the clinical environment
• Demonstrate understanding of the diversity and complexity of presentations in primary care and the factors that influence how patients present
• Demonstrate that you can establish a relationship with a patient, explore and acknowledge their concerns
• Demonstrate awareness of professional responsibility both to patients and to members of the multi-professional team and to student colleagues and reflect on how poor performance or poor professional behaviour should be addressed
• Take a medication history, including details of any complementary or alternative therapies the patient is using, and begin to consider the role of medication on the presentation and management of patients

Students will spend most of the week in a general practice although approximately half day a week will be spent doing student selected modules in the university. A lot of the learning will be informed by the patients that present during the students’ time in primary care and they will be expected to identify their knowledge gaps and be self-directed in their learning to fill these

The broad areas that are covered will be:

• Communication skills
• Focused history taking
• Examination skills where possible
• Use and interpretation of investigations
• Common diseases seen in general practice
• Long Term conditions – including pathology, psychology, sociology, management and public health
• Prescribing of common treatments
• Role of primary care in the NHS
• Use of health information
• Risk management
• Coping with uncertainty
• Multidisciplinary team working within primary care and with secondary care
• The use of reflection

Suggested topics to cover a breadth of long term conditions are:

• Diabetes
• COPD
• Hypertension and heart failure
• Osteoarthritis
• Dementia
• Stroke
• Childhood atopic disease
• Cancer

In the BM(EU) Programme, some clinical sessions will be with community specialists to enable students to gain an equivalent experience of clinical scenarios in a different healthcare system

The module will be taught through a range of learning and teaching strategies which may include:

• One to one teaching with GP and other members of the primary care team
• Face to face
• Online learning including SCRIPT
• Patient based learning
• Small group learning
• Symposia
• Reflection
• Case based learning
• Personal learning logbooks
• Peer discussion groups
• Lectures

Within this module there may be some activities that will take place in the evenings, nights or weekends, students are encouraged to make the most of these opportunities.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.