Paediatrics · History + examination

Fever, drowsiness and a rash in a toddler - Emergency Department

HardYear 5 · Curtin style · 15 min + 2 min reading · 5 tasks

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

Station - Instructions for candidate

You are an intern working in the Emergency Department of a metropolitan general hospital in Perth.

Sanjay Singh, aged 2 years and 8 months, has been brought in by his mother, Priya, with a fever since last night and a rash that she noticed this morning. The triage nurse has placed him in a monitored cubicle and recorded his observations. His mother is with him and will give the history. The child is represented by the examiner's description; examination findings will be provided as you verbalise each step.

Weight
14 kg

Your tasks are to:

  1. Take a focused history from his mother.
  2. Perform a focused examination.
  3. Request any relevant investigations and interpret the results provided.
  4. State your most likely diagnosis and differential diagnoses to the examiner.
  5. Outline your immediate management plan to the examiner.
  • You do NOT need to summarise your findings to the examiner.
  • You do not need to write a drug chart.
  • 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.