NURS 752 EXAM 3 FINAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | NURS
752 FINAL STUDY GUIDE & PRACTICE TEST 2026/2027
Big 3 Category- Top Misdiagnosis - ✔✔stroke, sepsis, lung cancer
#1 cause of malpractice - ✔✔Misdiagnosis
What helps form hypotheses and create your diagnostic reasoning? - ✔✔Epidemiology
Clinical diagnosis requires - ✔✔info from pt (subjective) 75%
use that info with ur knowledge of understanding disease + PE is 15%
Likelihood Ratios - ✔✔Weights that help you understand how much a physical sign argues for or against
a diagnosis
Possible weights of 0 to infinity
>1 means increased probability of disease
<1 means decreased probability of disease
Specificity - ✔✔Proportion of patients without the diagnosis who have the physical sign (e.g., positive
finding)
ex: me for celiac disease
Sensitivity - ✔✔Proportion of patients without the diagnosis who lack the physical sign (i.e., have a
negative result)
Likelihood Ratio Definition - ✔✔probability of finding in pts with disease / probability of same finding in
pts without disease
2 approaches to clinical decision-making Metacognition (thinking about thinking) - ✔✔Intuitive vs
Analytical
Experts vs. Novices - ✔✔experts gather less data, but better data, organize better = shorter time to
make accurate diagnosis
what makes a good clinical diagnostician? asking right questions
Article: Diagnostic Excellence and Patient Safety - Strategies and Opportunities - ✔✔PC- cancer
screening (colonoscopy 10 years, FOBT 2 years = survival rate up)
ED- sepsis (more deaths than some cancers) good improvements but more needed
,Inpatient- PE (over tested but under diagnosed) better with clinical decision tools and plasma d-dimer
measurement
Article: Big 3 diagnostic errors and serious misdiagnoses related harms are - ✔✔· 5 vascular events:
stroke, MI, venous thromboembolism, aortic aneurysm/dissection, arterial thromboembolism
· 5 infections: sepsis, meningitis/encephalitis, spinal abscess, pneumonia, endocarditis
· 5 cancers- lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, melanoma
Video: Catherine Lucey- Good clinical diagnosticians: - ✔✔o Efficiently obtain enough information from
patient to make initial differential diagnosis
o Search memory/resources to identify possible causes of patient's symptoms
o Prioritize the likelihood that a possible disease explains patient's concerns
o Use tests (carefully) to evaluate their assessments have to be careful and know and get correct proper
information because some tests are harmful, expensive, wasteful, timely
o Always continue to analyze the success of their diagnoses to improve accuracy going forward
Video: Catherine Lucey- experts: - ✔✔reorganize their knowledge in a relational way- S&S to syndromes
to disease
ACL Article: - ✔✔common knee injury in athletes
clinical diagnostic tests and MRI are 2 methods of evaluating ACL injuries
evidence supports clinical diagnostic tests, faster, sooner, cheaper too
gold standard: diagnostic arthroscopy
Screening tests - ✔✔to detect asymptomatic and early stage disease
should be highly sen/spec to pick up most cases of true disease and avoid false positives
targeted toward pop with higher disease prevalence (high positive predictive value)
safe, cost effective
should screen for diseases in which early identification and treatment have been demonstrated to
improve clinical outcomes
HIV - ✔✔Grade A- ages 15-65
Cervical Cancer - ✔✔Grade A- ages 21-65
21-29 cervical cytology every 3 years
30-65 cervival cytology every 3 years and HIV every 5 years
Colorectal Cancer - ✔✔45-75
, 45-49 grade B
50-75 grade A
HTN - ✔✔adults 18 and older without known HTN: grade A- office BP
Ovarian Cancer - ✔✔Asymptomatic women- against- grade D
High value screening tips - ✔✔screen less
dont screen if living less than 10 yrs
discuss potential downstreams before initial
use higher treshold for positive result
understand basic test characteristics and limitations as well as pts goals/values
Role of diagnostic testing - ✔✔to reduce uncertainty regarding a specific patient diagnosis
generally more appropriate for patients you feel have intermediate 10-90% pre post prob of disease
test characteristics (ex- likelihood ratios) should be considered before ordering test to help determine
whether given test will significantly alter your post test probability and change your management
Incidence - ✔✔Measure of the number of new cases of a characteristic that develop in a population in
a specified time
Occurrence of new cases of a disease
Prevalence - ✔✔Proportion of a population who have a specific characteristic in a given time period or
particular point in time regardless of when they first developed the characteristic
Number of existing cases of a disease
Cancer genetics - ✔✔Cancer is a genetic disease—that is, cancer is caused by certain changes to genes
that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide
Germline changes are found in every cell of the offspring; only ~10% of cancers are from germline
changes
Genetic changes that occur after conception are called somatic (or acquired) changes. Most cancers
develop from somatic changes
Most cancers are ___ - ✔✔somatic/acquired - not born with it
What causes genetic changes? - ✔✔o Heredity
752 FINAL STUDY GUIDE & PRACTICE TEST 2026/2027
Big 3 Category- Top Misdiagnosis - ✔✔stroke, sepsis, lung cancer
#1 cause of malpractice - ✔✔Misdiagnosis
What helps form hypotheses and create your diagnostic reasoning? - ✔✔Epidemiology
Clinical diagnosis requires - ✔✔info from pt (subjective) 75%
use that info with ur knowledge of understanding disease + PE is 15%
Likelihood Ratios - ✔✔Weights that help you understand how much a physical sign argues for or against
a diagnosis
Possible weights of 0 to infinity
>1 means increased probability of disease
<1 means decreased probability of disease
Specificity - ✔✔Proportion of patients without the diagnosis who have the physical sign (e.g., positive
finding)
ex: me for celiac disease
Sensitivity - ✔✔Proportion of patients without the diagnosis who lack the physical sign (i.e., have a
negative result)
Likelihood Ratio Definition - ✔✔probability of finding in pts with disease / probability of same finding in
pts without disease
2 approaches to clinical decision-making Metacognition (thinking about thinking) - ✔✔Intuitive vs
Analytical
Experts vs. Novices - ✔✔experts gather less data, but better data, organize better = shorter time to
make accurate diagnosis
what makes a good clinical diagnostician? asking right questions
Article: Diagnostic Excellence and Patient Safety - Strategies and Opportunities - ✔✔PC- cancer
screening (colonoscopy 10 years, FOBT 2 years = survival rate up)
ED- sepsis (more deaths than some cancers) good improvements but more needed
,Inpatient- PE (over tested but under diagnosed) better with clinical decision tools and plasma d-dimer
measurement
Article: Big 3 diagnostic errors and serious misdiagnoses related harms are - ✔✔· 5 vascular events:
stroke, MI, venous thromboembolism, aortic aneurysm/dissection, arterial thromboembolism
· 5 infections: sepsis, meningitis/encephalitis, spinal abscess, pneumonia, endocarditis
· 5 cancers- lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, melanoma
Video: Catherine Lucey- Good clinical diagnosticians: - ✔✔o Efficiently obtain enough information from
patient to make initial differential diagnosis
o Search memory/resources to identify possible causes of patient's symptoms
o Prioritize the likelihood that a possible disease explains patient's concerns
o Use tests (carefully) to evaluate their assessments have to be careful and know and get correct proper
information because some tests are harmful, expensive, wasteful, timely
o Always continue to analyze the success of their diagnoses to improve accuracy going forward
Video: Catherine Lucey- experts: - ✔✔reorganize their knowledge in a relational way- S&S to syndromes
to disease
ACL Article: - ✔✔common knee injury in athletes
clinical diagnostic tests and MRI are 2 methods of evaluating ACL injuries
evidence supports clinical diagnostic tests, faster, sooner, cheaper too
gold standard: diagnostic arthroscopy
Screening tests - ✔✔to detect asymptomatic and early stage disease
should be highly sen/spec to pick up most cases of true disease and avoid false positives
targeted toward pop with higher disease prevalence (high positive predictive value)
safe, cost effective
should screen for diseases in which early identification and treatment have been demonstrated to
improve clinical outcomes
HIV - ✔✔Grade A- ages 15-65
Cervical Cancer - ✔✔Grade A- ages 21-65
21-29 cervical cytology every 3 years
30-65 cervival cytology every 3 years and HIV every 5 years
Colorectal Cancer - ✔✔45-75
, 45-49 grade B
50-75 grade A
HTN - ✔✔adults 18 and older without known HTN: grade A- office BP
Ovarian Cancer - ✔✔Asymptomatic women- against- grade D
High value screening tips - ✔✔screen less
dont screen if living less than 10 yrs
discuss potential downstreams before initial
use higher treshold for positive result
understand basic test characteristics and limitations as well as pts goals/values
Role of diagnostic testing - ✔✔to reduce uncertainty regarding a specific patient diagnosis
generally more appropriate for patients you feel have intermediate 10-90% pre post prob of disease
test characteristics (ex- likelihood ratios) should be considered before ordering test to help determine
whether given test will significantly alter your post test probability and change your management
Incidence - ✔✔Measure of the number of new cases of a characteristic that develop in a population in
a specified time
Occurrence of new cases of a disease
Prevalence - ✔✔Proportion of a population who have a specific characteristic in a given time period or
particular point in time regardless of when they first developed the characteristic
Number of existing cases of a disease
Cancer genetics - ✔✔Cancer is a genetic disease—that is, cancer is caused by certain changes to genes
that control the way our cells function, especially how they grow and divide
Germline changes are found in every cell of the offspring; only ~10% of cancers are from germline
changes
Genetic changes that occur after conception are called somatic (or acquired) changes. Most cancers
develop from somatic changes
Most cancers are ___ - ✔✔somatic/acquired - not born with it
What causes genetic changes? - ✔✔o Heredity
