Advanced Health Assessment & Clinical Diagnosis in Primary Care

Designed for advanced practice nurses and advanced practice nursing students, as well as Physician's Assistant students and practitioners, Advanced Health Assessment & Clinical Diagnosis in Primary Care, 4th Edition, is a practical resource that takes you to the "next step" of health assessment, beyond basic history and physical examination and through the diagnostic reasoning process. Accessible and concise, it approaches physical examination by focusing on a specific chief complaint rather than a diagnosis of a disease entity. Each chapter is organized into four major areas: Focused History; Focused Physical Examination; Laboratory and Diagnostic Studies; and Differential Diagnosis. Those who master the diagnostic reasoning process in this text will be able to accurately diagnose the majority of conditions they will see in clinical practice.

• Easy-to-follow format with consistent organization improves your ability to understand and accurately perform the different elements of the diagnostic reasoning process:

• Focused History sections walk you through the thinking process involved in obtaining a pertinent, relevant, problem-specific history that will assist in differential diagnosis.
• Key Questions highlight what questions to ask the patient, followed by an explanation of what the patient's responses might signify, to guide you toward an accurate assessment and precise diagnosis.
• Focused Physical Examination sections explain how to conduct more advanced diagnostic techniques and offer interpretations of the findings.
• Laboratory and Diagnostic Studies sections give a brief outline of what types of laboratory or diagnostic studies would be appropriate for the chief complaint or suspected diagnosis.
• Differential Diagnosis sections contain the most common differential diagnoses for each chief complaint and summarize the history and physical examination findings, along with the laboratory and diagnostic studies indicated.

• Differential Diagnosis tables offer an at-a-glance summary of possible diagnoses.

PART I. AN INTRODUCTION TO CLINICAL REASONING

1. Clinical Reasoning, Differential Diagnosis, and Evidence-Based Practice

PART II. COMMON SYMPTOMS IN PRIMARY CARE

2. Abdominal Pain

3. Affective Changes

4. Amenorrhea

5. Breast Lumps and Nipple Discharge

6. Breast Pain

7. Chest Pain

8. Confusion in Older Adults

9. Constipation

10. Cough

11. Diarrhea

12. Dizziness

13. Dyspnea

14. Earache

15. Fatigue

16. Fever

17. Genitourinary Problems in Males

18. Headache

19. Hoarseness

20. Limb Pain

21. Low Back Pain, Acute

22. Nasal Symptoms and Sinus Congestion

23. Palpitations (NEW!)

24. Penile Discharge

25. Rashes and Skin Lesions

26. Rectal Pain, Itching, and Bleeding

27. Red Eye

28. Sleep Problems

29. Sore Throat

30. Syncope

31. Urinary Incontinence

32. Urinary Problems in Females and Children

33. Vaginal Bleeding

34. Vaginal Discharge and Itching

35. Vision Loss

36. Weight Loss/Gain (Unintentional) (NEW!)

PART III. DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING

37. The Chest X-ray

38. The Abdominal X-ray (NEW!)