Station - Instructions for candidate
You are an intern in the Emergency Department of a Perth metropolitan hospital.
Linh Pham, a 72-year-old Vietnamese-Australian woman, presents with her daughter after an incident at home about 30 minutes ago. She reports she struck her head and has a mild headache now. She denies loss of consciousness and feels well otherwise. She takes a blood-thinning medication for her heart. The triage nurse has recorded her observations.
| Triage observations | BP 148/82 mmHg, HR 84 regular, RR 16, SpO2 98% on room air, temperature 36.8°C, GCS 15/15, pain 3/10 |
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Your tasks are to:
- Take a focused history of what happened and relevant background.
- Perform a focused neurological examination, including GCS assessment and inspection of the scalp. Describe to the examiner what you would examine and the findings will be provided.
- Request appropriate investigations.
- State your most likely diagnosis and any differentials to the examiner.
- Outline your initial management plan to the examiner, including decisions about her blood-thinning medication.
- You do NOT need to summarise your history and examination findings to the examiner before giving your diagnosis.
This is a 15-minute station, with 2 minutes of reading time.