Paediatrics · History + examination

Child with a limp - GP

MediumYear 5 · Curtin style · 15 min + 2 min reading · 4 tasks

2 min reading · 15 min station · reminders at 2 min

Station - Instructions for candidate

You are a final-year medical student on placement in a suburban Perth general practice. The GP has asked you to see the next patient with his mother and report back.

Marco Bianchi, aged 5, has been brought in by his mother because of a limp for two days. Marco is present, sitting on her lap.

Your tasks are to:

  1. Take a focused history from the parent.
  2. Perform a focused examination.
  3. Request any relevant investigations and interpret the results provided.
  4. Explain your provisional diagnosis and your management plan to the parent.
  • The child is played by a mannequin or a doll for the examination; direct your explanation to the parent.
  • Please verbalise your examination to the examiner; findings will be provided on request.

This is a 15-minute station, with 2 minutes of reading time.

Ask the examiner

Say what you would examine or request, the way you would in the station. Nothing is named until you ask for it.

Whatever the examiner recognises is revealed below. Or pick a numbered item to reveal it blind.

Investigations

Ask for a category the way you would in the station: “Can I have the obs and a set of bloods?”

Examination

Say what you would examine and how; the examiner reports what you would find.

After treatment

Once you have acted, ask how the patient has responded.