ChoiceHub
General practice · History + examination

Hot swollen big toe - GP

MediumYear 5 · Curtin style · 10 min + 2 min reading · 4 tasks

Ready

2 min reading, 10 min station, warning at 2 min

Focus the timer and press Space to start or pause.

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 and report back.

Giuseppe Caruso, 54, has limped in as a walk-in this morning with a very painful big toe that woke him in the night. His file records treated hypertension, a BMI of 33, and an eGFR of 62 six months ago.

Practice fileHypertension - hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg mane. BMI 33. eGFR 62, creatinine 110 (six months ago). No allergies recorded.
Observations (practice nurse)HR 84 /min, BP 148/92 mmHg, RR 14 /min, SpO2 98% on room air, T 37.1 degrees C, weight 104 kg, BMI 33

Your tasks are to:

  1. Take a focused history.
  2. Perform a focused examination of the foot and the affected joint, with a brief screen of other joints. Describe to the examiner what you are looking for; the findings will be provided.
  3. Request any investigations you consider necessary; the examiner will provide results where appropriate. State your most likely diagnosis and differential diagnoses to the examiner.
  4. Outline your initial management plan, including drugs with doses, and address the patient's questions.
  • You do NOT need to summarise your findings to the examiner.
  • Plan the station: about 4 minutes for the history, 2 for the examination, and 4 for investigations, diagnosis and management.
  • State drug, dose, route and duration for anything you prescribe.

This is a 10-minute station, with 2 minutes of reading time.

Ask the examiner

Say what you want out loud, then open it below. Each result stays hidden until you reveal it.

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.

Generated by AI for practice; check doses and pathways against eTG / AMH before relying on them.