Observe GP

Question 1

Acute

Answer 1

Condition comes on quickly and often lasts a short time

e.g. heart attack, the flu or an asthma attack.

Question 2

Autonomy

Answer 2

The right of patients to make decisions about their healthcare.

Question 3

Benign

Answer 3

Not seriously harmful
e.g. a cyst or tumour which is non-cancerous (doesn’t spread or invade other tissues).
The opposite of this is malignant (cancerous).

Question 4

Capacity

Answer 4

The ability to use and understand information to make a decision, and communicate any decision made.

Question 5

Chronic

Answer 5

Persisting for a long time or reoccurring

e.g. high blood pressure, diabetes or arthritis.

Question 6

Compassion

Answer 6

A strong feeling of sympathy for people who are suffering and a desire to help them.

Question 7

Demographic

Answer 7

A particular sector of a population

e.g. age, gender, sexual orientation, income.

Question 8

Deteriorate

Answer 8

Become progressively worse.

Question 9

Diagnosis

Answer 9

Judgement about what could be causing a patient’s symptoms or signs, usually made after hearing the patient’s story, physical examination and tests.

Question 10

Empathy

Answer 10

The ability to understand another person’s feelings and experience.

Question 11

End of life care

Answer 11

Supporting a person in the last months of their life, to live as well as possible, allowing them to die with dignity, planning their care according to their wishes and preferences.

Question 12

Health literacy

Answer 12

Individuals having enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information. This includes computer and numerical literacy and the ability to interpret graphs. It affects people’s ability to engage with self-care, share medical history, navigate the healthcare system, fill in forms, understand probability and risk and evaluate the quality of information online.

Question 13

Holistic care

Answer 13

Considering all the physical, psychological and social factors potentially impacting a person’s health.

Question 14

ICE

Answer 14

A technique used during a consultation to aid a clinician in their approach - identifying the patients Ideas, Concerns and Expectations.

Question 15

Infection control

Answer 15

Policies and procedures used to minimize the risk of spreading infections.

Question 16

Long-term condition management

Answer 16

Conditions that cannot, at present, be cured, but can be controlled by medication and other therapies
e.g. asthma, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and epilepsy.

Question 17

Multiple conditions

Answer 17

The simultaneous occurrence of two or more conditions which may or may not be related.

Question 18

Multi-disciplinary

Answer 18

Involving several different disciplines or types of professional in approach to patient care
e.g. GPs, nurses, palliative care specialists, psychologists.

Question 19

Non-maleficence

Answer 19

Doing no harm to the patient: including not inflicting harm and not imposing risks of harm.

Question 20

Opportunistic healthcare

Answer 20

Taking the opportunity to promote a healthy lifestyle or encourage self-care in patients during a consultation which may be primarily about something else.

Question 21

Palliative care

Answer 21

The management of pain or other symptoms when a person has an illness which cannot be cured. This can include psychological, social and spiritual support for a person and their family or carers. Patients can receive palliative care while they are still receiving other therapies to treat a condition not just at the end of life.

Question 22

GP partner

Answer 22

A GP partner effectively “owns” all or part of the practice as a business. Partners take a share in the profits and losses of a practice, as well as a share in the ownership of the decisions which shape the practice’s future. Partners are responsible for all aspects of the contractual liabilities of the practice, including staff and buildings.

Question 23

Placating

Answer 23

Communicating or acting in a way to make someone less angry.

Question 24

Person-centred care

Answer 24

Care which focuses on what matters to the patient, what is working and not working for them, their expectations and shared-decision making.

Question 25

Primary care

Answer 25

First point of contact services within the NHS including general practice, dentists, optometrists and community pharmacy.

Question 26

Prognosis

Answer 26

Doctors’ judgement about the likely or expected development of a disease.

Question 27

Rapport

Answer 27

A close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.

Question 28

Reassure

Answer 28

Say or do something to remove or lessen someone’s doubts or fears.

Question 29

Red flags

Answer 29

Indicators of possible serious condition

e.g. blood in faeces or unexplained weight loss are “red flags” for bowel cancer.

Question 30

Referral

Answer 30

Directing a patient to a medical specialist.

Question 31

Risk Management

Answer 31

An organised effort to identify, assess, and reduce, where appropriate, risk to patients or others. Risks of certain actions are considered and weighed up based on their likelihood and impact e.g. to prescribe medication with possible side effects or to wait and allow the body to deal with a condition.

Question 32

safety netting

Answer 32

Explaining to patients when and how they should seek further medical help in order to reduce their risk of coming to harm. A technique GPs often use to manage the inherent uncertainty in medicine e.g. “If the pain doesn’t settle down as I expect, or you start to feel more breathless, please come back and see us again.”

Question 33

safeguarding

Answer 33

Protecting peoples’ health, wellbeing and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect.

Question 34

Secondary care

Answer 34

Care often provided in a hospital, includes specialisms such as cardiology or rehabilitation.

Question 35

Self-care / self-management

Answer 35

Duty that doctors have to encourage their patients to maintain good health through healthy lifestyle choices and to educate them how to maintain and improve their health.

Question 36

Social determinants of health

Answer 36

The social and economic circumstances which can influence your health. These can include your education, where you live e.g. living on a busy polluted road, what you eat, or how much you earn.

Question 37

Sign

Answer 37

Evidence of a medical problem detected by a doctor, usually picked up by examining the patient.

Question 38

Social prescribing

Answer 38

Refer patients to a local, non-clinical service.

Question 39

Symptom

Answer 39

Evidence of a medical problem experienced by the patient, usually picked up by listening to the patient’s story.

Question 40

‘The patient presented with’

Answer 40

Phrasing used by clinicians to describe the main symptoms a patient is experiencing.

Question 41

Triage

Answer 41

Sorting patients based on need of medical treatment.

Question 42

Uncertainty

Answer 42

Despite the scientific basis for much of modern medicine, healthcare is full of uncertainty – for example it is often hard to be completely certain about a patient’s diagnosis, the best tests to do, how an illness might unfold, or how best to treat it. Increasingly doctors try to address this uncertainty in care by acknowledging it openly, communicating about it with patients, or by minimising risks without doing lots of unnecessary and potentially harmful tests or treatments.