PHC5301 - Preventative health and management of chronic disease - 2019

This unit has been created in collaboration with the Department of General Practice for students undertaking studies in ONE of the following four topics:

• Health care for older people
• Issues in General Practice prescribing
• Prevention in General Practice and Primary Care
• Chronic disease management.

Students undertaking this unit must choose only one topic. Each topic is equivalent to 6 credit points.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to;

Health care for older people

1. Critically analyse the patient-centred orientation of existing published guidelines for aged care, including aspects of patient experience and expectations as determined by their psycho-socio-cultural environment
2. Create and justify a database of resources and processes that will optimise team-based care of the aged, including available community-based supports
3. Analyse a small self-audit of aged patients who take multiple medications (or attend multiple healthcare providers) and develop a strategy to optimise patient safety and the management of medico-legal risk
4. Create a plan for quality improvement in one area of aged care that is informed by evidence-based assessment and practice

   Issues in General Practice prescribing

5. Discuss the Australian and international use of prescribed medication in terms of research directions, funding, rates of prescribing, the major stakeholders, the influences on prescribing and policy directions such as quality use of medicines initiatives
6. Demonstrate the use of a particular model for deciding the most appropriate therapeutic medication for a particular condition
7. Demonstrate knowledge, practice and skill in a chosen prescribing situation in general practice, including the therapeutic medications used, and the particular steps necessary for safe prescribing
8. Demonstrate critical thinking in reviewing the evidence about a medication via a planned and recorded interview with a pharmaceutical detailer
9. Create a plan for improving the quality of prescribing in your own practice or within the clinic, using audit and feedback

   Prevention in General Practice and Primary Care

10. Explain why prevention is a priority for general practice and primary care with particular reference to chronic disease and the prevalence of lifestyle risk factors in the student's country of origin
11. Reflect on the role of General Practitioners and members of the General Practice and Primary Care team in delivering preventive care
12. Appraise the evidence supporting preventive care interventions in General Practice and Primary Care and identify current evidence practice gaps
13. Critically analyse patient perceptions of prevention and the role of General Practitioners in preventive care
14. Identify the barriers and facilitators to optimal delivery of prevention in General Practice and Primary Care settings
15. Describe and evaluate strategies to improve delivery and uptake of preventive care in General Practice and Primary Care settings
16. Locate, retrieve and use current evidence based guidelines, tools, resources and recommendations for prevention in General Practice and Primary Care settings and suggest an implementation plan for their application in practice

    Chronic disease management

17. Describe the burden, distribution and determinants of chronic disease within their own country and internationally
18. Analyse the place of Primary Care (General Practice) in the management of chronic diseases with particular reference to their own country and health care system
19. Describe responses to the challenges of chronic disease management as embodied in models such as the chronic care model (Wagner) and their own country's responses to the challenges of this field
20. Evaluate their current work-place performance in managing chronic disease, utilising audit and comparison with chosen standards or guidelines
21. Plan change within the student's current work-place to improve chronic disease management, utilising their previous evaluations, known effective interventions and published guides, templates and financial modelling

See individual topic guides for details - some topics will require students to write up cases on patients they have seen in practice, to write up journals based on clinical activity and/or to perform audits on clinical activity

Health care for older people

• Therapeutic Research Task - Analysis of guidelines (1,500 words) (25%)
• Therapeutic Research Task - Development of resources (1,500 words) (25%)
• Therapeutic Research Task - Audit (1,500 words) (25%)
• Therapeutic Research Task - Plan for quality improvement (1,500 words) (25%)

Issues in General Practice prescribing

• Clinical Research Task - Written essay (1,500 words) (25%)
• Clinical Decision Task - Case report (1,500 words) (25%)
• Clinical Decision Task - Case report (1,500 words) (25%)
• Clinical Decision Task - Case report - hurdle
• Clinical Research Task - Written plan for quality improvement (1,500 words) (25%)

Prevention in General Practice and Primary Care

• Literature review (2,000 words) (30%)
• Practice policy document (2,000 words) (40%) (hurdle)
• Case study: Preventive care intervention report (2,000 words) (30%)

Hurdle requirement:

• Online activities comprising 15-20 short written tasks (2,000 words)

Chronic disease management

• Clinical Research Task -Essay (1,500 words) (25%)
• Clinical Research Task - Best practice audit (1500 words) (25%)
• Clinical Research Task - Change management plan (1,500 words) (25%)
• Clinical Decision task - Case report (1500 words) (25%)

Equivalent of 12 hours a week in 6 credit point units run over 12 weeks

See also Unit timetable information

Primary health care