General Practitioner Course

Lesson 1 • Core Competencies and Professional Standards

Outlines the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of a competent GP. Provides a self-assessment framework that students use throughout the course.

Lesson 2 • Healthcare System Navigation

Maps primary, secondary, and tertiary care relationships. Students learn how GPs coordinate patient journeys across system levels.

Lesson 3 • Ethical and Legal Foundations

Covers informed consent, confidentiality, and duty of care as applied in general practice. Builds the ethical reasoning skills needed in every clinical encounter.

Lesson 1 • Communicating with Diverse Patients

Addresses language barriers, health literacy, and cultural sensitivity in consultations. Equips GPs to deliver equitable care across patient populations.

Lesson 2 • The Consultation Framework

Introduces structured consultation models used in general practice. Provides the scaffold for all clinical communication taught in this chapter.

Lesson 3 • Breaking Bad News and Difficult Conversations

Applies the SPIKES protocol and related frameworks to sensitive disclosures. Prepares students for emotionally complex consultations that occur regularly in practice.

Lesson 4 • Active Listening and Empathy

Trains verbal and non-verbal listening techniques that build therapeutic rapport. Directly improves diagnostic accuracy and patient adherence.

Lesson 1 • Cardiovascular and Respiratory Examination

Covers structured assessment of heart and lung function in the GP clinic. Identifies key findings that differentiate common from serious pathology.

Lesson 2 • Neurological and Musculoskeletal Examination

Provides structured neurological and joint examination techniques for the GP. Enables early detection of functional deficits and red-flag signs.

Lesson 3 • Targeted Examinations in Primary Care

Covers focused examinations for eyes, ears, skin, and genitourinary systems. Completes the GP’s toolkit for undifferentiated presenting complaints.

Lesson 4 • Principles of Clinical Examination

Establishes inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation as the four pillars of examination. Sets the methodological foundation for all system-specific techniques.

Lesson 1 • Interpreting Diagnostic Tests

Covers sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values for test selection and interpretation. Enables evidence-based test ordering in the GP context.

Lesson 2 • Clinical Decision Support Tools

Introduces validated scoring tools and decision aids used in primary care. Enhances consistency and reduces variability in clinical decision-making.

Lesson 3 • Foundations of Diagnostic Reasoning

Introduces System 1 and System 2 thinking and their roles in clinical diagnosis. Establishes the cognitive framework underlying all diagnostic work in this chapter.

Lesson 4 • Building and Prioritising Differentials

Teaches structured methods for generating and ranking differential diagnoses. Directly applies history and examination findings from prior chapters.

Lesson 1 • Fever, Infection, and Sepsis Recognition

Trains early identification of serious infection and sepsis in primary care. Emphasises time-critical actions and safe escalation pathways.

Lesson 2 • Chest Pain Assessment and Triage

Teaches risk stratification of chest pain from cardiac, pulmonary, and musculoskeletal causes. Ensures safe identification of life-threatening emergencies in the GP clinic.

Lesson 3 • Respiratory Infections and Acute Cough

Covers assessment and management of upper and lower respiratory tract infections. Applies diagnostic reasoning to distinguish viral from bacterial causes.

Lesson 4 • Musculoskeletal and Injury Presentations

Covers assessment and initial management of sprains, fractures, and back pain. Guides appropriate imaging and physiotherapy referral decisions.

Lesson 1 • Principles of Chronic Disease Care

Introduces the chronic care model, multimorbidity, and patient self-management support. Provides the conceptual framework for all condition-specific sections that follow.

Lesson 2 • Diabetes Mellitus Management

Addresses type 1 and type 2 diabetes diagnosis, monitoring, and complication prevention. Integrates lifestyle, pharmacological, and self-monitoring approaches.

Lesson 3 • Respiratory Chronic Disease

Covers ongoing management of asthma and COPD including inhaler technique and review. Builds on acute exacerbation skills from the previous chapter.

Lesson 4 • Cardiovascular Disease Management

Covers hypertension, dyslipidaemia, and heart failure management in the GP setting. Applies risk stratification tools to guide treatment intensity decisions.

Lesson 1 • Lifestyle Medicine and Behaviour Change

Covers evidence-based interventions for physical activity, nutrition, smoking, and alcohol. Applies behaviour change theory to brief GP counselling encounters.

Lesson 2 • Screening Programmes in Primary Care

Covers criteria for effective screening and major programmes applicable in general practice. Enables GPs to counsel patients on benefits, harms, and participation decisions.

Lesson 3 • Principles of Preventive Medicine

Introduces primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention frameworks and their GP applications. Establishes the evidence-based rationale for all preventive activities in this chapter.

Lesson 4 • Occupational and Environmental Health

Introduces workplace hazard assessment and environmental exposure history in primary care. Expands the GP’s preventive lens beyond individual lifestyle factors.

Lesson 1 • Evidence-Based Practice in General Practice

Teaches critical appraisal of clinical literature and guideline application. Enables GPs to translate research evidence into individualised patient care decisions.

Lesson 2 • Quality Improvement Methodology

Introduces Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles and audit methods for practice improvement. Builds the skills needed to identify and close clinical performance gaps.

Lesson 3 • Professional Development and Continuing Education

Guides GPs in building sustainable learning habits and maintaining professional registration. Ensures long-term clinical competence beyond the course itself.

Lesson 4 • Complex and Multimorbid Patient Management

Addresses clinical reasoning and care coordination for patients with multiple conditions. Synthesises all prior clinical skills into the management of the most challenging cases.