Rationale
Sore throat and rhinorrhea are very common clinical presentations. Inappropriate use of antibiotics for viral pharyngitis is a significant contributing factor to antibiotic resistance.
Causal Conditions
(list not exhaustive)
- Infections (e.g., viral, bacterial, candidial)
- Allergic (e.g., chronic allergic rhinosinusitis)
- Other (e.g., trauma, neoplasm, foreign body)
Key Objectives
Given a patient with a sore throat and/or rhinorrhea, the candidate will diagnose the cause, severity, and complications, and will initiate an appropriate management plan.
Enabling Objectives
Given a patient with a sore throat and/or rhinorrhea, the candidate will
- list and interpret critical clinical findings, including
- presence or absence of fever, cough, cervical lymphadenopathy, tonsillar exudates;
- relationship to environmental exposure;
- visual inspection of the nose and oropharynx;
- list and interpret critical clinical investigations, including
- determining whether further testing for group A streptococci is indicated;
- determining if an allergy or more unusual cause for rhinorrhea is present;
- determining the need for blood testing (e.g., monospot);
- construct an effective initial management plan, including
- appropriate use of antibiotics;
- recognition of the role of antibiotics (e.g., prevention of acute rheumatic fever);
- determination as to whether the patient requires specialized care.