Screening for Medical Referral: Musculoskeletal Complaints and Conditions

November 21-22, 2009 - Bondurant Hall on UNC-CH campus

Course Description:

Today’s practice – in all settings – requires PTs to be able to recognize the clinical manifestations of medical problems. Advance your knowledge of medical referral using a screening process designed for safe, effective and efficient patient management. Integrate your clinical expertise of when to treat, when to refer, and when to consult with the most current perspectives in clinical practice. This course emphasizes a detailed patient history vital to the medical screening process along with physical examination techniques related to screening the upper quarter and the musculoskeletal system. Approximately 3-4 hours of pratice labs are included in this must-attend course.

Upon completing this course you’ll be able to:

• Compare the physical therapist’s role and responsibilities associated with the medical screening process with that of a physician’s.
• Differentiate between a review of systems and a systems review.
• Construct review of systems checklists for the various body systems.
• Integrate medical screening principles with existing examination schemes to formulate an efficient and effective patient management scheme.
• Evaluation history and physical examination findings (the “red flags”) associated with disease states and adverse medication events and decide whether communication with a physician regarding the patient’s health status is warranted.
• Identify signs and symptoms associated with selective medical conditions that would warrant immediate communication with the physician, with emphasis on conditions of the musculoskeletal, endocrine, psychological, and integumentary systems.
• Safely and effectively use physical examination screening techniques for the upper quarter, including observation of skin lesions, palpation of non-neuromusculoskeletal structures, cranial nerve screening, and also special tests for screening of the musculoskeletal system including auscultation for bony fractures.
• Implement strategies to promote an effective and efficient patient history and a patient referral to another health care practitioner.

Course Schedule:

Saturday, November 21
Registration 8-8:30 (includes continental breakfast)
Course content 8:30am - 6 pm (lunch on your own)

Sunday, November 22
Continental breakfast 7:15-7:45
Course content (laboratory-based) 7:45-12:30

Faculty:

William Boissonnault, PT, DHSc, FAAOMPT, is assistant professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison Program in Physical Therapy, and curriculum director, University of Wisconsin and Meriter Hospitals Orthopedic Clinical Residency Program. Boissonnault currently holds adjunct faculty positions at the University of St Augustine Center for Health Sciences, The University of Tennessee-Memphis, the University of Indianapolis Krannert School of Physical Therapy, and the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. He is editor of Examination in Physical Therapy Practice: Screening for Medical Disease and co-editor of Pathology: Implications for the Physical Therapist. He was awarded the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association Clinical Excellence Award in 1998, was named APTA's John H P Maley Lecturer in 2000, and received the Charles Magistro Distinguished Service Award from the Foundation for Physical Therapy in 2001. Boissonnault has taught continuing education courses for physical therapists on differential diagnosis and screening for medical referral for 13 years.

Registration Fees:

$349 APTA members

$529 non-APTA members

We recommend you register early for this course. Space is limited, given the laboratory nature of the course. To register (APTA's website).