Preventive Care: 3 Easy Ways to Learn for the FM Shelf
I’m terrible at memorization, so when I realized preventive care questions were on the shelf I wanted to punch someone. Turns out it’s not as difficult to learn as it may seem. Whether you’re learning for your shelf, or want to look clever on your FM rotation, you will need to know screening guidelines, immunizations for adults and kids and the basics of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. You only need to be able to read and watch a few videos to learn it in a quick afternoon.
Three Easy Steps to Learn Preventive Care for the FM Shelf
- Watch the three appropriate OnlineMedEd Preventive Medicine videos
- Check the “ambulatory medicine” section of your Step 2 book, or Step Up to Medicine
- Learn the USPSTF screening top recommendations, and CDC vaccination schedule exceptions
Quick Tips
- Learn who *cannot* get certain vaccinations, rather than trying to memorize who can get them
- Know the published recommendations for screening, not the ones in progress
- No book or video will be more up-to-date than the CDC or USPSTF website, so always fall back to their data
Learning Questions
In the spirit of learning by doing, see if you can answer these questions after you’ve studied your preventive care materials.
For fun, we’ve included a link to a .pdf if you feel like printing it out.
- Who gets screened for an abdominal aortic aneurysm? When?
- If your patient has an allergy to eggs what vaccine(s) must s/he avoid?
- Who gets Prevnar13 vs Pnuemovax23? When?
- Who does not get a flu shot every year?
- At what age should your patient get a colonoscopy?
- Does a patient with a clean wound and tetanus shot 10 years ago get a booster in the ED?
- What vaccine should a freshman college student get before moving into the dorms?
- Who should get the HPV vaccine? Who should be screened for cervical cancer? When?
- When should you screen for lipid disorders?
- Is there recommended screening for lung cancer?
Resources:
CDC Vaccination/Immunization Schedules
