Tweet It is vitally important to be able to convey seriousness to another clinician SEVERITY ‘Moderately severe’ , ‘Severe’ e.g. Moderately severe UTI ‘In extremis’ e.g. APO presenting in extremis… Read more »
TweetINTRODUCTION Make the presentation flow. Use prose. Don’t give the spiel in monotone with no breaks and punctuation. Preface each new section with a brief pause and then a change… Read more »
Tweet OPENING/INTRODUCTORY SENTENCE Attempt to encapsulate the entire patient assessment in 1-2 sentences. Stable or unstable? Mild/Moderately/Severely unwell? Total duration of illness and 1-3 key symptoms. Chronological progression – acute,… Read more »
Tweet INTRODUCTION Can be verbal or in written form Identified as an event that regularly presents high risk-exposure to patient care Incomplete or misinterpreted information leads to delays in patient review,… Read more »
Tweet ACUTE HEADACHE (this section does not consider traumatic causes of headache) Consider early CT brain if rapid onset of headache to rule out expanding space-occupying lesion particularly if there… Read more »
Tweet There are a number of important causes of headache that may not be identified on plain CT brain. If there is remaining clinical suspicion other modalities such as CTA,… Read more »
Tweet Is a resuscitation strategy in catastrophic bleeding in which the aim is not to normalise haemodynamic parameters but to obtain minimal levels of perfusion prior to a definitive intervention to… Read more »
Tweet ACUTE ABDOMINAL PAIN Analgesia early in assessment usually improves the accuracy of abdominal findings Early IV access, surgical opinion, fluid resuscitation prior to completing assessment if patient is shocked don’t… Read more »
TweetChronology in conjunction with location and associated symptoms generally will help narrow down the diagnostic possibilities in acute abdominal pain ABRUPT OR RAPID Generally suggests serious pathology such as acute… Read more »
Tweet Laboratory Investigation INVESTIGATION INDICATION HB If bleeding suspected WCC If infection suspected EUC if GI loss is prominent (e.g. vomiting and diarrhoea) or third spacing (e.g. bowel obstruction) If… Read more »