Respiratory examination
Examine the chest while noticing whether the patient needs urgent help.
Clinical learning outcomes: Awaiting named clinical review.
What you should learn
- Assess respiratory findings and communicate the patient’s condition.
- Adapt the examination to distress, positioning and comfort.
Recognise and explain
- A breathless patient may need assessment and treatment before a full examination sequence is possible.
On your placement
Agree the activity and supervision with the clinical team. For patient-facing learning, seek permission and respect the patient’s comfort and care needs.
- Practise the MLA examination with a partner and swap observer roles.
- Ask a clinician to supervise an examination of a suitable patient.
- Describe positive and negative findings and discuss whether they fit the history.
- Compare the findings with an available investigation, with a clinician.
Start here
Chapter 6: System examination
Read the MLA respiratory examination and how to interpret and present the findings.
Current guidance
GMC practical skills and procedures
Check the task-specific graduate expectation and discuss your current supervision with the placement team.
GMC guidance on the quality of clinical placements
Use the placement guidance to agree learning opportunities, supervision and feedback with your team.
Discuss
Assessing acute breathlessness
Recognise respiratory compromise and compare acute heart failure with pneumothorax without relying on age or a single measurement.
Practise
One learner performs. One checks the important steps and gives feedback. Then swap. These are St Emlyn’s practice tools, not official MLA scoring systems.
Respiratory examination paired practice
Practise with a consenting partner, use the observer checklist and swap roles.
On your next shift
Notice how the clinician adapts the examination when a patient is too breathless to complete it.
How this relates to GMC graduate outcomes and the MLA
These are St Emlyn’s learning connections, not a claim that this page covers every national requirement.
Clinical and professional capabilities: Clinical assessment; Communication; Recognising limits and seeking help.
Practical skills: Respiratory examination.
Suggested placement activities informed by the GMC framework. No new procedure-specific supervision level is assigned here.
Explore the student placement programme
Student practice and graduate expectations
About this resource and its review
A St Emlyn’s guide to learning Emergency Medicine during undergraduate placements. It is not an official medical-school or GMC curriculum. Your medical school’s curriculum and assessment requirements take precedence.
National foundations: GMC Outcomes for Graduates, the practical-skills supplement and the MLA content map applying from September 2026.
Framework checked: 8 October 2026. This is a source check, not clinical sign-off.
Clinical learning outcomes: awaiting named clinical review.
The four learning routes are St Emlyn’s groupings. The six interconnected MLA domains remain part of the official content map.