General issues of otorhinolaryngology teaching to future general practitioners — family medicine doctors

Otorhinolaryngology is a medical specialty between three important areas: acute life-threatening emergencies, oncology and reconstructive surgery, as well as the largest volume of relatively harmless diseases (rhinosinusitis, otitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, etc.) that affect the children’s and adult’s quality of life. It is known that 20–40 % of general practice consultations for adults are related to otorhinolaryngology. Possession of skills in examining ENT organs by general practitioners — family medicine (GP-FM) doctors is important for providing quality medical care in the primary care setting. A major role in this is played by the teacher of the educational institution who needs to present the material in an academic and at the same time interesting way. The purpose: to improve and optimize the format of teaching “otorhinolaryngology” discipline to future GP-FM doctors at the departments of family medicine. The learning process is not just a presentation of modern views on the etiology, pathogenesis, classification, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment of a certain list of diseases that we most often encounter in clinical practice — it is the skill of teaching the doctor to transform a set of facts into a complete clinical situation with an assessment of the sequence of necessary measures in order to improve the patient’s quality of life both now and in the future. A feature of the otorhinolaryngology specialty, as a component of the theoretical and practical pool of knowledge of the GP-FM doctor, is the need to possess clinical thinking to combine the information received from the patient and the data of the instrumental examination, which should be the basis of the educational process.