Homework: Assessing the Head, Eyes, Ears, Nose, and Throat
Focused Thyroid Exam Chantal, a 32-year-old female, comes into your office with complaints of "feeling tired" and "hair falling out". She has gained 30 pounds in the last year but notes markedly decreased appetite. On ROS, she reports not sleeping well and feels cold all the time. She is still able to enjoy her hobbies and does not believe that she is depressed.
Nurses conducting assessments of the ears, nose, and throat must be able to identify the small differences between life-threatening conditions and benign ones. For instance, if a patient with a sore throat and a runny nose also has inflamed lymph nodes, the inflammation is probably due to the pathogen causing the sore throat rather than a case of throat cancer. With this knowledge and a sufficient patient health history, a nurse would not need to escalate the assessment to a biopsy or an MRI of the lymph nodes but would probably perform a simple strep test.
In this Case Study Homework, you consider case studies of abnormal findings from patients in a clinical setting. You determine what history should be collected from the patients, what physical exams and diagnostic tests should be conducted, and formulate a differential diagnosis with several possible conditions.
To Prepare
1) You will be assigned to a specific case study for this Case Study Homework. Please see the "Course Announcements" section of the classroom for your homework from your Instructor.
2) Also, your Case Study Homework should be in the Episodic/Focused SOAP Note format rather than the traditional narrative style format. Refer to Chapter 2 of the Sullivan text and the Episodic/Focused SOAP Template in the Learning Resources for guidance. Remember that all Episodic/Focused SOAP Notes have specific data included in every patient case.
With regard to the case study you were assigned:
1) Review this Learning Resources and consider the insights they provide.
2) Consider what history would be necessary to collect from the patient.
3) Consider what physical exams and diagnostic tests would be appropriate to gather more information about the patient's condition. How would the results be used to make a diagnosis?
4) Identify at least five possible conditions that may be considered in a differential diagnosis for the patient.
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
(1) The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
(2) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
(3) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.