101 Primary Care Case Studies: A Workbook for Clinical and Bedside Skills

Real-life primary care case studies* from more than 50 primary care providers, including physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and physicians!

101 Primary Care Case Studies offers real-life patient scenarios and critical thinking exercises to help you work through a patient’s chief complaint. Through narrative case studies, you will determine how best to diagnose, treat, and manage your patient based on the history of present illness, review of systems, relevant history, and physical examination findings. This workbook will ask probing questions to help you determine differential and most likely diagnoses, diagnostic tests to order, and appropriate patient management strategies using relevant and timely references to support your decisions. The organization of each case study simulates the patient care journey from chief complaint to outcome.

Serving as a virtual clinical preceptor, this workbook can be used independently or in a classroom setting. It is accompanied by a robust online student supplement that provides answers to all questions, real outcomes of the cases, and valuable personal insights from the authors on how the patient was successfully managed. Not only will this workbook help you work through patient cases clinically, it will also share important, but often overlooked, bedside manner skills needed to successfully communicate with and care for your patients.

Covering conditions across all organ systems and across the lifespan, this workbook is organized by chief complaint, providing an authentic perspective on what to expect in the patient care environment. It even includes information on pathophysiology and how to use ICD-10 and CPT (E/M) codes in your documentation. The book uniquely weaves together both the science and art of medicine by including personal insights into quality and compassionate care.

Key Features

• Provides real-life patient cases from an interprofessional author team of physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and physicians
• Uses a templated case study design and critical thinking exercises to help you methodically work through various patient scenarios
• Teaches clinical and bedside manner skills imperative for delivering quality patient care
• Covers patients across the lifespan, including pediatric, adolescent, adult, and geriatric populations
• Offers additional insight on patient education, medical and legal concerns, and interprofessional collaboration
• Includes a robust online student supplement with answers to all the case studies along with valuable insights from the authors on how they successfully managed the cases--see inside for access details
• Provides instructors with a table of contents that is filterable by chief complaint, diagnosis, patient population, and organ system

*Details changed to protect patient information.

Sampath ("Sam") Wijesinghe, DHSc, PA-C, AAHIVS, is an associate professor and director of career development at Stanford University School of Medicine's MSPA program. He completed his PA education at Union College, where he received a master's degree in PA studies. He also has a master's degree in management information systems from the University of Nebraska and a doctor of health science degree with an emphasis in global health from A.T. Still University. Dr. Wijesinghe completed an HIV clinical fellowship at University of California San Francisco, Fresno. He has been an HIV/AIDS specialist since 2014 and has worked in primary care medicine since 2010. He has been involved in medical education since 2013. His clinical interests include primary care medicine, HIV medicine, and global health.

Dr. Wijesinghe practices primary care medicine at Copeland Medical Healthcare Partners, Clovis, California. He practices HIV medicine at Adventist Health Medical Center, Fowler, a small town in California.

Dr. Wijesinghe is committed to educating the next generation of clinicians. With extensive experience in primary care and HIV medicine in underserved areas, he views medical education as an opportunity to improve patient outcomes and advance the field. As a nationally recognized expert, he serves as a CDC clinical ambassador for the Let's Stop HIV Together campaign. In 2023, the Excellence in Partnering award was given to the Together Clinical Ambassador activities, receiving commendable recognition from the CDC Division of HIV Prevention. The Together team extends sincere gratitude to Dr. Wijesinghe for his critical role in training physician associates and emerging students, alongside public health clinicians. Additionally, his significant contributions to the medical field through various publications are greatly appreciated. That same year, he was honored as the William H. Marquardt Community Health Access Fellow by the PA Foundation for inspiring both current and aspiring clinicians to engage in underserved areas and address healthcare disparities.A highly sought-after speaker and lecturer, Dr. Wijesinghe has presented at several national conferences and events and educates the next generation of PAs as a clinical preceptor on a regular basis.

Dr. Wijesinghe lives with his wife, Nuwan, and has two children, Rynee and Ryler. He loves traveling with the family, listening to music, watching sports, playing golf, biking, and hiking.