FRACP Common Short Cases 2009
Below is a list of short cases that were observed in 2009. Whilst this list will change, covering these topics should be sufficient to pass the short cases (or most of them) for the clinical examination. My strategy was to read about these cases and know what I was expected to find. Books targeting the MRCP PACES are excellent revision tools to help with this. In addition, if I was introduced to an additional case during my clinical practice I would make a point of learning the pertinent examination findings.
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Purpose of the FRACP Short Case
Essentially what you are trying to do is to answer a question posed to you by the examiner. For example - Mr Cartwright presents with exertional dyspnoea, please examine his respiratory system. The candidate is expected to, based on the findings of a thorough systematic examination, come up with the most likely reason and a reasonable and sensible list of differential diagnosis based on the physical signs present. Each short case starts with a stem, and you have 7 minutes to complete the examination. You have to make sure that the examiners are confident that you can not only elicit the signs but you can place the signs together within the clinical context to come up with a reasonable diagnosis or aetiology for the patient's presenting problem. The total examination process takes 15 minutes, thereby giving the examiner 8 minutes to participate in discussion of the case.