family medicine
Clinical teaching and practical ideas for your next study session.
Febrile Prostatitis With a Weak Stream: When to Escalate for Retention
A febrile man with dysuria, perineal pain, a weak dribble, and a palpable bladder may need more than outpatient antibiotics. Learn how to check for acute retention, decide on urgent escalation, and frame bladder drainage without assuming one catheter route fits every patient.
Mental Capacity Act MCQs: Apply the Two-Stage Test to Finances
For Mental Capacity Act questions about finances, start with the specific decision and assess ability with practicable support. Then link any inability to an impairment; diagnosis or an unwise choice alone is not enough.
Fishy Discharge, Positive BV Wet Prep: Why STI Testing Still Matters
A bedside pattern can support bacterial vaginosis, but it does not answer whether a patient also has an STI. In a 24-year-old with a new partner, separate the vaginitis diagnosis from the decisions to test for chlamydia, gonorrhea, trichomoniasis, and HIV.
Population Health Risk Stratification: Why 40/30/20/10 Is Not a Patient Score
The familiar 40/30/20/10 shorthand is a historical population-health figure, not an individual risk score. Review its five-part breakdown, why the percentages are not precise causal weights, and how to turn a panel flag into person-centered care.
LNG-IUD Contraindications: Why a Negative Pregnancy Test May Not Clear Insertion
A negative urine pregnancy test does not always clear a patient for same-day LNG-IUD insertion. Learn how the pregnancy checklist distinguishes actual pregnancy, temporary uncertainty that calls for deferral, and true category 4 conditions.
New-Onset Heavy Menstrual Bleeding: When to Test for VWD
In new-onset heavy menstrual bleeding, the lifetime pattern—not a bruising question or routine PT/aPTT alone—helps decide when to test for von Willebrand disease while continuing uterine evaluation.
Unconscious After Choking: The CPR-First Board Priority
Learn why severe adult choking followed by unresponsiveness triggers compression-first CPR regardless of whether a pulse is present—and how to distinguish this FBAO pathway from general adult BLS.
PID Follow-Up at 72 Hours: When Persistent Pelvic Pain Needs a New Workup
A follow-up after outpatient PID is a diagnostic checkpoint, not just an adherence check. Learn which findings should improve, how to judge the clinical trajectory, and when persistent pain calls for urgent reassessment.
Breastfed Newborn Jaundice: When to Fix Intake, Reassure, or Investigate
In a jaundiced breastfed newborn, the key decision is not whether breast milk is “causing” the bilirubin. It is whether intake is inadequate, the infant is thriving with isolated unconjugated jaundice, or a red flag requires prompt evaluation.
Asthma With Panic Symptoms: When Partial Improvement Is Not Enough
A young adult with wheeze, tremor, paresthesia, and fear may have asthma, hyperventilation, or both. This case teaches family physicians how objective reassessment—not oxygen saturation or reassurance alone—guides escalation, discharge, and controller therapy.
The Asthma Spirometry Trap: A Positive Bronchodilator Response Is Not the Diagnosis
Learn how to calculate the adult bronchodilator response, avoid the AND/OR and denominator traps, and decide what a negative test means when asthma symptoms remain convincing.