Palliative Care Home Visit Assessment
Activity
Clinical Skills Sessions
Clinical Skills Sessions
Case Stem: You are working with a family physician who performs home-visits for their clinic patients when clinically indicated. You can order bloodwork at home with a cost to the patient of about $80 per visit. You are also able to order ECGs, Ultrasound, and X-Rays (depending on accessibility of the home for machine equipment). These are not same-day services for urgent investigations. Valerie (she/her) is a 64-year-old female patient who is part of your family medicine preceptor’s practice along with her husband Paulo, and children Bellamy (30 years old) and Abby (25 years old), who is pregnant and due in 2 months’ time. Valerie has a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer.
Curriculum Block
Transition to Clerkship / Week 3
- Indicates most relevant
Objectives
Activity Objectives
- To learn and practice the SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) tool for verbal handover of patient care.
- To learn and to practice the SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) tool for written handover of patient care.
- To review a differential diagnosis for fever.
- To practice a focused assessment of a patient over the telephone in coordination with a visiting nurse.
- To review non-verbal signs of pain for patients unable to communicate verbally (e.g. for patients with delirium).
- To review common medications used for control of symptoms in end-of-life care
- To practice holding a goals of care discussion using the Serious Illness Conversation Guide framework.
- To practice using common clinical tools helpful in a palliative care assessment, including the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS), and Palliative Performance Scale
- To practice a palliative care assessment, including symptom assessment, detailed social and functional history
Tags
CanMEDS Roles
Communicator
Curriculum Block
Transition to Clerkship
Week 3
Curriculum Week
Transition to Clerkship
Week 3
Discipline
Family medicine
Palliative care
General MCC Objectives
Communication Skills
McMaster Professional Competency
Clinical Skills
MeSH
Clinical Competence [I02.399.630.210]
Medical History Taking [E01.370.510]
Palliative Care [E02.760.666]
Palliative Care [N02.421.585.666]
Patient Care Planning [N04.590.233.624]
