Curriculum for General Practice - The Royal New Zealand College ...

O Older Curriculum People for General Practice
Communication
The GP will demonstrate the ability to:
• communicate with older people, taking into account
possible physical and cognitive disability, failing hearing
and sight
• recognise and manage cultural and linguistic factors when
communicating with older patients, especially those who
do not speak English as their first language
• explore the patient’s beliefs, concerns and expectations,
integrating the doctor’s agenda, finding common ground
and negotiating shared plans for the future
• provide clear patient care instructions to carers,
family/whānau and rest home staff
• recognise the status of older people, in particular in ethnic
groups, and demonstrate communication skill appropriate
to this, such as with kaumātua or kuia
• discuss with sensitivity issues and decisions about
end-of-life care.
Clinical Expertise
The GP will demonstrate the ability to:
• discuss safety issues related to physical changes with
age, such as the ability to drive
• diagnose and manage conditions commonly associated
with ageing
• help the patient’s functional needs and help them to
maintain independence, as appropriate
• recognise the significant problem of polypharmacy and
aim to minimise the use of medications
• understand the physical, psychological and social changes
that may occur with age, especially in relation to loss of a
partner, other bereavements, isolation and loneliness
• recognise the interactions and complications of
multisystem diseases and conditions and manage
these appropriately
• recognise how an ageing person adapts to the ageing
process, and how the breakdown of these adaptions
leads to disability
• incorporate preventive care activities into their practice.
• employ knowledge of all branches of medicine,
recognising where this may differ in older people, and that
the goals of diagnosis, management and prognosis, and
overall context, may differ
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Curriculum for General Practice