General Flashcards
What is the sick role?
The rights and responsibilities for patients and doctors when they have a consultation. It is the behavior expected of a person who is physically ill, mentally ill, or injured
What are patients expected to do in the sick role?
Must want to get well as quickly as possible
Should seek prompts medical advice and cooperate
Allowed to shed normal activities and responsibilities, e.g., work
Regarded as in need of care and unable to get better on their own
Criticism of the sick role
Symptom iceberg - patient’s do not necessarily come to the dr for help
Patients with chronic illness and MUS find it difficult to enter the sick role
People try to label themselves as sick
Conflict between best interests of patient and cost to society of the allocation of resources
What are the two agendas of sickness?
Disease - the pathology/ what is wrong with the body
Illness - the patient experience of disease
Legislation that supports carers
Employment act
Carers and disability act
Carers act
Equality act
Financial support available for carers
Carer’s allowance
Disability living allowance
Attendance allowance
Sources that should be used when making a clinical decision
Patient preference
Available resources
Research evidence
Clinical expertise
Why is evidence based decision making important
Deals with uncertainty
Medical knowledge is incomplete/shifting
Patients will receive most appropriate treatment
Constant need for innovation/improvement
Improving efficiency of healthcare services
Reduces practice variation
Why does medicine used guidelines
Allows practice to be more evidence based
Enables care to be more consistent across the country
Aspects of research cycle
Identify a clinical problem
Basic research - laboratory based
Applied (clinical) research
Clinical care
Roles of post mortem examination
Relatives cannot register death until a medical identification of death is classified
Information recorded on certificate underpins national mortality data
Importance in monitoring population health - epidemiological research
Informs authorities of need for intervention and allows targeting of that
Research - tissue pathology allows development of understanding of natural Hx, potential tests for investigation of disease presence, ID drug targets
Reasons a death should be referred to a coroner
Cannot readily be certified as being due to natural causes
The deceased was not seen by a doctor within the 14 days prior
Element of suspicious circumstances
History of violence
Death linked to an accident
Question of self-neglect or neglect by others
Death occurred or illness arisen during/shortly after being detained in custody
Detained under MHA
Death is linked with an abortion
May have been contributed to by actions of the deceased himself
Hx of drug or solvent abuse, self-injury or overdose
Receiving war pension/industrial disability pension unless death shown to be unrelated
Due to industrial disease or related to deceased’s employment
During an operation/before full recovery from anaesthetic/related to anaesthetic (24 hours)
Related to a medical procedure or treatment
Due to lack of medical care
Unusual or disturbing features to the case
Occurs within 24 hours of admission
May be wise to report death where there is an allegation of medical mismanagement
Aims of an audit
Clinical education
Encourages teamwork
Improve service/care
Gain financial incentives
Fulfils contractual obligations
Stages of an audit
Set standards - NICE/local guidelines
Measure current performance
Compare vs standards - how are we doing
ID barriers/steps to improve - how can we/what’s stopping us getting better?
Make changes - implement plan
Re-audit - did the plan work?
Factors that influence the rate of infection
Infectious agents - pathogenicity, ability to spread
Environment - animals, water, population
Mode of transmission - airborne, faecal-oral, droplets, aerosol
Portal of entry - mouth, nose, GIT
Host factors - chronic illness, nutrition, age
Nosocomial infections
MRSA Catheter-associated UTI Pneumonia C diff Surgical wounds Septicaemia
Reducing nosocomial infections
Prevention - handwashing, infection control programmes, advisory service, surveillance, sterilisation
Detection, investigation and control of outbreaks
Policies and procedures to prevent and control infection - education and training
What is antibiotic resistance
Bacterial change so antibiotic no longer work in people who need them to treat infections
Causes of antibiotic resistance
Use in livestock
Release of antibiotics into the environment during pharmaceutical manufacturing
Volume of antibiotic prescription
Missing doses when taking antibiotics
Inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics
How to prevent antibiotic resistance
Use antibiotics only when prescribed
Complete full prescriptions
Never share antibiotics
Never use leftover prescriptions
Only prescribing antibiotic when needed
Using the right antibiotic to treat illness
Features of a dependence syndrome
Salience
Compulsion
Tolerance
Withdrawal
Relief after abstinence and reinstatement upon abstinence
Narrowing of repertoire
What makes drugs addictive
Pleasure producing potency
Rapid onset of action/ short duration of action
Tolerance
Withdrawal effects
Medical conditions wholly attributable to alcohol misuse
Alcoholic liver disease
Alcoholic neuropathy / Korsakoffs
Chronic pancreatitis
Alcoholic cardiomyopathy
Alcoholic gastritis
Alcohol related accidents
Ways to stop smoking
Brief advice
Behavioural support - motivational interviewing, CBT, telephone service
NRT - bupropion, varenicline
Health promotion for alcohol/substance misuse
Education - PSHE and TV/radio, FRANK education programme
Policy - minimum unit pricing, taxation, stricter licensing laws
Mass media campaigns - Drink await
What is lay referral system
People talk to other people before seeking help
Zola’s triggers for help-seeking behaviour
Interference with work or physical activity
Interference with social relations
Interpersonal crisis (i.e. death in family)
Putting time limit on symptoms
Sanctioning (relative/friends tell them to seek health care advice)
Barriers to help-seeking behaviour
Provision & availability of resources
Transport - cost, car ownership
Disruption to work
Attitudes of staff
Previous bad experience
Inverse care law
Geographical distance from healthcare
Time/effort
Long waiting times
Inability for time off work/children
What is paternalism?
Interference with person’s freedom of information and choices in health care
What is Bolams test
is a means of assessing clinical negligence in Court
If a Dr/nurse reaches the standard of a responsible body of medical opinion, he is not negligent
What is Bolitho amendment
An addition to the Bolam test of the legal standard of care required in negligence actions, which states that a professional’s acts or omissions be assessed to see if (i) they accord with a reasonable body of opinion and (ii) they withstand the logical analysis of the court.
The concept that doctors should behave in a logical way
What is beneficence
The principle of beneficence is the obligation of physician to act for the benefit of the patient
What is autonomy
is the right of competent adults to make informed decisions about their own medical care.
What is normative ethics
study of the means of deciding what is right and wrong
What is meta ethics
refers to the nature of ethical terms and concepts and to the attempt to understand the underlying assumptions behind moral theories
is the study of the nature, scope, and meaning of moral judgment
study of moral concepts
What is deontology
is an ethical theory that uses rules to distinguish right from wrong
also known as “duty-based ethics”. This ideology states that the correct course of action is dependent on what your duties and obligations are.
It means that the morality of an action is based on whether you followed the rules, rather than what the consequence of following them was.
What is applied ethics
The use of moral principles and reasoning to solve problems that arise in practical fields, such as health care, law, or management.
Social constructionist regarding disability
The concept that there is no such thing as a disabled individual but that society makes people individual
Social model of disability
Discrimination against disabled people is due to the organisation of society
Medical model of disability
The medical model of disability says people are disabled by their impairments or differences
What is opportunity cost?
The loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen
What is eugenics
Improving a population by controlled breeding
Wordens four tasks of mourning
accept the loss
acknowledge the pain of the loss
adjust to a new environment
reinvest in the reality of a new life