HOW TO . . . Do a domiciliary visit
HOW TO . . . Advise a patient about care home placement
HOW TO . . . Assess for frailty
HOW TO . . . Assess gait in an older person
HOW TO . . . Plan a complex discharge
HOW TO . . . Conduct an MDT meeting
HOW TO . . . Distinguish syncope and seizures
HOW TO . . . Manage multifactorial dizziness—clinical example
HOW TO . . . Measure postural blood pressure
HOW TO . . . Perform carotid sinus massage
HOW TO . . . Improve concordance/adherence
HOW TO . . . Start ACE inhibitors
HOW TO . . . Manage pain in older patients
HOW TO . . . Initiate warfarin
HOW TO . . . Manage drug-induced skin rashes
HOW TO . . . Treat neuralgia
HOW TO . . . Manage a patient with Parkinson’s disease who cannot take oral medication
HOW TO . . . Treat challenging symptoms in Parkinson’s disease
HOW TO . . . Use benzodiazepines for insomnia
HOW TO . . . Assess for inattention
HOW TO . . . Manage swallow after stroke
HOW TO . . . Estimate prognosis after stroke
HOW TO . . . Protect your patient from another stroke
HOW TO . . . Manage urinary incontinence after stroke
HOW TO . . . Distinguish delirium from dementia
HOW TO . . . Investigate a patient with dementia
HOW TO . . . Manage the driver who has dementia
HOW TO . . . Treat with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors
HOW TO . . . Manage patients with dementia in hospital
HOW TO . . . Manage the older person refusing treatment
HOW TO . . . Prescribe sedating drugs in delirium
HOW TO . . . Distinguish dementia from a depressive pseudodementia
HOW TO . . . Assess depression
HOW TO . . . Rationalize antianginals in older patients
HOW TO . . . Use antihypertensives in a patient with comorbid conditions
HOW TO . . . Discuss warfarin for AF
HOW TO . . . Use digoxin
HOW TO . . . Investigate a patient with suspected heart failure
HOW TO . . . Manage the heart failure see-saw
HOW TO . . . Measure ABPI
HOW TO . . . Treat influenza-like illness in older people
HOW TO . . . Manage the patient with pneumonia who fails to respond to treatment
HOW TO . . . Improve drug delivery in asthma or COPD
HOW TO . . . Manage weight loss in older patients
HOW TO . . . Insert a fine-bore NG feeding tube
HOW TO . . . Investigate and manage persistent unexplained nausea and vomiting
HOW TO . . . Approach an older patient with abnormal liver function tests
HOW TO . . . Image the older colon
HOW TO . . . Investigate and manage chronic diarrhoea
HOW TO . . . Perform a fluid challenge in AKI/anuria
HOW TO . . . Estimate the glomerular filtration rate
HOW TO . . . Administer subcutaneous fluid
HOW TO . . . Perform a short ACTH stimulation test (short Synacthen® test)
HOW TO . . . Monitor temperature
HOW TO . . . Diagnose diabetes in older people
HOW TO . . . Manage older diabetic people in care homes
HOW TO . . . Manage diabetes in the terminally ill patient
HOW TO . . . Interpret thyroid function tests
HOW TO . . . Investigate iron deficiency anaemia
HOW TO . . . Transfuse an older person
HOW TO . . . Manage non-operative fractures
HOW TO . . . Manage steroid therapy in giant cell arteritis
HOW TO . . . Grade muscle strength
HOW TO . . . Aspirate/inject the knee joint
HOW TO . . . Care for the elderly foot
HOW TO . . . Examine the older female genital system
HOW TO . . . Care for a vaginal pessary
HOW TO . . . Manage urinary incontinence without a catheter
HOW TO . . . Treat catheter complications
HOW TO . . . Manage trial without catheter (‘TWOC’)
HOW TO . . . Treat ‘overflow’ faecal incontinence
HOW TO . . . Communicate with a deaf person
HOW TO . . . Assess hearing
HOW TO . . . Use a hearing aid
HOW TO . . . Examine the vestibular system
HOW TO . . . Perform Epley’s manoeuvre
HOW TO . . . Optimize vision
HOW TO . . . Use an Amsler grid to detect macular pathology
HOW TO . . . Assess a red eye in an older person
HOW TO . . . Recognize and manage scabies
HOW TO . . . Accurately diagnose infection in an older patient
HOW TO . . . Control MRSA
HOW TO . . . Manage C. difficile infection
HOW TO . . . Sample urine for dipstick, microscopy, and culture
HOW TO . . . Describe performance status
HOW TO . . . Screen for malignancy
HOW TO . . . Manage symptomatic hypercalcaemia
HOW TO . . . Break bad news
HOW TO . . . Promote a ‘healthy bereavement’
HOW TO . . . Prescribe a subcutaneous infusion for palliative care
HOW TO . . . Assess capacity
HOW TO . . . Manage a patient insisting on returning home against advice
HOW TO . . . Assess whether an AD is valid and applicable
HOW TO . . . Manage DNACPR decisions
HOW TO . . . Manage suspected elder abuse
HOW TO . . . Manage peri-operative anaemia
The abbreviated mental test score
The Abbreviated Mental Test Score (AMTS) is a widely applicable, wellvalidated,
brief screening test of cognitive function.
Derived by Hodkinson from a 26-item test, by dispensing with those questions
which were poor discriminators of the cognitively sound and unsound.