NR511 MidTermNotes. Chapters 3, 4, 5,7,8,9,11, 22 Principles of Primary Care

Chapters 3, 4, 5,7,8,9,11, 22 Principles of Primary Care Diagnostic reasoning can be seen as a kind of critical thinking. Critical thinking involves the process of questioning one’s thinking to determine if all possible avenues have been explored and if the conclusions that are being drawn are based on evidence. Diagnostic reasoning then includes a systematic way of thinking that evaluates each new piece of data as it either supports some diagnostic hypothesis or reduces the likelihood of others. The type of data that you collect depends on the type of visit. Most visits are episodic or problem-focused where 1 or 2 specific issues need to be addressed. One thing I want to point out is that the information in the H&P should only be relevant to the complaint or problems that you are addressing. So, a patient with only a skin complaint does not need a full H&P. Rather, a focused history and exam as it relates to the skin complaint or associated symptoms should be recorded. First, I want to go over two important, distinct concepts that seem to be an area of confusion for many students: subjective and objective findings. We will discuss these in more detail when we introduce the SOAP note lecture. To start, subjective information is what the patient: 1) reports, 2) complains of; or 3) tells you in response to your questions. Examples of subjective information include the following: • Constitutional: fever, chills, lethargy, weight loss or gain, and so on • HEENT: headache, blurred vision, otalgia, sore throat, and so on • Neck: swollen lymph nodes, and so on • Lungs: SOB, cough, wheezing, and so on These are all examples of subjective information. Subjective information is the S part of the SOAP note, which includes CC, HPI, and ROS, as these are all things that the patient reports to you in an interview. Objective information is what you can see, hear, or feel as part of your clinical exam. It also includes laboratory data and test results. Examples of objective information include the following: • Constitutional: well-developed, well-groomed, thin, cachectic, obese, and so on • HEENT: Normocephalic, PERRL • Neck: anterior cervical lymph nodes are swollen and tender • Lungs: clear, wheezing in RLL, bronchospastic cough • Results: you might list the CBC, strep test, U/A, CXR, CT, and so on Objective information is the “O” part of the SOAP. Eliciting a detailed patient history through open-ended questioning and active listening offers critical clues to determining a diagnosis. Obtaining a meaningful history involves collecting subjective information and organizing it into meaningful chunks of knowledge. Data acquisition in history taking is most effective if it is hypothesis driven. In other words, when the information selected and gathered is related to the list of possible diagnoses. Hypothesis-driven data means that data that would confirm or disprove a specific hypothesis are specifically sought and recorded. However, obtaining data that fit one possible problem is not enough. Competing hypotheses must be ruled out by seeking additional data, and the provider needs to consider that the priority list of hypotheses may change based on new information. For example, symptoms of runny nose may be due to a viral infection. If in the history- taking the provider specifically asks if these symptoms have occurred before and the patient replies, “Yes, this also happened 2 weeks ago,” the likelihood of a viral infection decreases and the likelihood of ............................................continued.................................................