Applied Knowledge and Skills

This section presents a summary of the development of each capability over the three phases of the curriculum. The capabilities have often been abbreviated and/or combined in this section. The full Graduate Capabilities document contains a detailed listing of all capabilities (available as a pdf).

• Using Basic and Clinical Science in the Practice of Medicine
• Understanding the Social and Cultural Aspects of Health and Disease
• Patient Assessment and Management

1. Using Basic and Clinical Science in the Practice of Medicine

		Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3
	Mechanisms of Health and Disease
	Explains mechanisms that maintain a state of health.	*
	Recognises health problems and relate to normality.	*
	Identifies the components of “basic/ medical” science that are necessary to understand a scenario, locates relevant information and interprets the scenario.	*
	Describes pathophysiology of diseases and explains at whole person, organ, cellular and molecular levels.	*	*	*
	Anticipates complications and their basis as well as prevention and treatment			*
	Diagnostic Investigations
	Chooses and interprets appropriate investigations.		*
	Plans and justifies appropriate investigations using EBM skills.			*
	Approaches to Management
	Describes a general management plan consistent with the pathophysiologic model of health and illness.	*
	Understands pharmacological principles and mechanisms of standard treatments.	*	*
	Explains how management plans alter the illness or disease process.		*
	Predicts outcomes and prioritises approaches in multiple or multi-system diseases.			*
	Communication of Understanding
	Teaches/explains scientific basis of medicine to junior colleagues and patients.			*

2. Understanding the Social and Cultural Aspects of Health and Disease

		Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3
	Social Determinants of Health and Disease
	Identifies environmental, psychological, social and cultural factors that contribute to health or illness.	*	*
	Explains mechanisms whereby social, cultural and environmental factors affect health.	*	*
	Identifies health status and needs of different groups in society (e.g. the elderly, Indigenous people, immigrant groups and refugees).	*		*
	Plans health care with patients’ lifestyle, culture and resources in mind.			*
	Recognises major public health problems and individuals at risk.			*
	Measuring Health Status
	Describes and interprets patterns of health and illness in society.	*
	Explains the utility and limitations of screening individuals or populations for health and illness.		*
	Health Care Systems
	Describes the structure of the Australian Health care system and how people in Australia access their health care system.	*
	Understands equity and its implications for Health Care Delivery.	*
	Understands how and why the health system balances differing needs and priorities in the use of health resources and access to health care.		*
	Improving Health by Social Approaches
	Describes primary, secondry and tertiary apporaches to disease prevention and health promotion	*
	Analyses and evaluates population-based interventions.		*
	Develops management plans taking account of social, cultural and lifestyle factors.			*
	Familiar with community-based health care services and able to refer patients and collaborates appropriately.			*
	Collaborates with other health care professionals in health promotion and disease prevention.			*

3. Patient Assessment and Management

		Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3
	Consultation (See also Effective Communication)
	Identifies important symptoms related to body systems.	*
	Conducts a detailed efficient and focussed consultation with a patient including symptom analysis.		*
	Conducts efficient focussed consultation.		*
	Elicits relevant lifestyle, occupational, social and family risk factors for illness and appreciates their significance and identifies social, cultural and psychological factors that impact on a patient’s health.		*	*
	Elicits the patient’s current therapies and any complications from the condition and its treatment.			*
	Physical Examination
	Examines a system in isolation.	*
	Conducts a comprehensive and appropriate physical examination on a child, adult or elderly patient.		*
	Conducts a proficient examination related to patient's presentation.			*
	Procedural Skills
	Skills listed for the appropriate phase.	*	*	*
	Clinical Reasoning
	Applies elementary clinical reasoning to health scenarios.	*
	Begins to use pattern recognition and understand the value of specific clinical features in developing differential diagnoses.		*
	Employs clinical reasoning skills in deriving diagnoses and management plans that encompass multiple aspects of health.		*
	Identifies the longitudinal impact of illness on patients and families/carers.		*
	Demonstrates sound clinical reasoning and diagnostic skills in response to clinical problems.			*
	Recognises typical and atypical features of a presentation.			*
	Handles unexpected findings and prolonged uncertainty appropriately.			*
	Selects and justifies appropriate investigations and management and interprets results.			*
	Quality and Safety
	Recognises the concepts of risk and error , understands the importance of quality medical care and the principles of Open Disclosure.		*
	Applies evidence-based principles to clinical problems and understands and demonstrates safe prescribing and quality of use of medicines.		*	*
	Understands the part that clinical practice improvement processes (CPI), audit and clinical guidelines play in improving clinical quality and safety.			*