Knowledge guide

LG18: Acute conditions and palliative care emergencies

Key presentations and conditions

Advanced Trainees will have a comprehensive depth of knowledge of these presentations and conditions.

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Investigations, procedures, and clinical assessment tools

Advanced Trainees will know the scientific foundation of each investigation and procedure, including relevant anatomy and physiology. They will be able to interpret the reported results of each investigation or procedure.

Advanced Trainees will know how to explain the investigation or procedure to patients, families, and carers, and be able to explain procedural risk and obtain informed consent where applicable.

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Acute conditions in palliative care patients
  • Abdominal conditions, acute
  • Arrhythmias
  • Cardiac failure – decompensated
  • Coronary syndrome, acute
  • Delirium
  • Electrolyte derangement
  • Fracture
  • Hyperglycaemia
  • Hypertension
  • Hypoglycaemia
  • Hypotension
  • Increased intracranial pressure (ICP)
  • Injury post-fall
  • Liver failure – decompensated
  • Perforated viscus
  • Pericardial effusion
  • Pleural effusion
  • Renal failure, acute
  • Respiratory failure
  • Sepsis
  • Stroke
  • Substance:
    • overdose
    • withdrawal
  • Thromboembolic disease
  • Urinary retention
Palliative care emergencies
  • Airway obstruction
  • Haemorrhage
  • Opioid toxicity
  • Seizures
  • Severe agitation
  • Severe pain, acute
  • Spinal cord compression
  • Superior vena cava obstruction

For each presentation and condition, Advanced Trainees will know how to:

Synthesise
  • recognise the clinical presentation
  • identify relevant epidemiology, prevalence, pathophysiology, and clinical science
  • take a comprehensive clinical history
  • conduct an appropriate examination
  • establish a differential diagnosis
  • plan and arrange appropriate investigations
  • consider the impact of illness and disease on patients and their quality of life when developing a management plan
Manage
  • provide evidence-based management
  • prescribe therapies tailored to patients’ needs and conditions
  • recognise potential complications of disease and its management, and initiate preventative strategies
  • involve multidisciplinary teams
Consider other factors
  • identify individual and social factors and the impact of these on diagnosis and management
Investigations
  • Blood tests
  • ECG
  • Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)
  • Imaging, such as:
    • bone scan
    • CT
    • echocardiogram
    • MRI
    • ultrasound
    • x-ray
Procedures
  • Biliary stent – percutaneous
  • Nephrostomy – percutaneous
  • Pericardial:
    • drain
    • window
  • Pleural tap
  • Superior vena cava (SVC) stent
  • Surgical fixation of fractures
  • Ureteric stent