Advanced Health Assessment And Diagnostic Reasoning: Includes Navigate 2 Premier Access

Book Preface

Daily life activities place physical and emotional demands on people and expose them to a wide variety of diseases and conditions. Consequently, the healthcare provider must be prepared to diagnose and treat a variety of disorders. Health assessment is a complex process, yet many assessment texts address only the physical examination component in any real depth. We developed Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnostic Reasoning to include each step of health assessment, demonstrating the links between health history and physical examination and illustrating the diagnostic reasoning process. We wanted to fill in the missing piece in most basic physical examination texts—the thought process one must assume as one assesses an actual case.

Advanced health assessment involves determining existing conditions, assessing capabilities, and screening for disease or other factors predisposing a patient to illness. A thorough health history and physical examination are necessary to correctly diagnose existing conditions and detect risk for other conditions. This text provides the healthcare provider with the essential data needed to formulate a diagnosis and treatment plan.

Organization of the Text

This text provides three introductory chapters that cover general strategies for health—history taking, physical examination, and documentation. The remainder of the text consists of clinical chapters covering assessment of various systemic disorders (e.g., gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, etc.). Each clinical chapter includes the following sections:

Anatomy and Physiology Review
Health History
History of Present Illness
Past Medical History
Family History
Social History
Review of Systems
Physical Examination
Equipment Needed
Components of the Physical Exam
Inspection
Palpation
Percussion
Auscultation
Diagnostic Reasoning
Assessment of Special Populations
Considerations for the Pregnant Patient
Considerations for the Neonatal Patient
Considerations for the Pediatric Patient
Considerations for the Geriatric Patient
Case Study Review
Chief Complaint
Information Gathered During the Interview

Key Features

Content in this text is presented in a way that is easy to follow and retain. It is also presented so that all of the pieces of assessment “fit together.” Aspects of the health history are given in a two-column format: The first column gives the type of information that the provider should obtain, while the second column provides specific questions or information to note. The second column also takes matters a step further—it gives examples of which conditions the findings may indicate. Aspects of the physical examination are also given in a two-column format: action and rationale. The first (action) column gives the actions clinicians should take (with appropriate steps or strategies), and the second (rationale) column lists normal and abnormal findings and, as applicable, possible indications/ diagnoses associated with those findings. To further demonstrate diagnostic reasoning, every clinical chapter contains a “Differential Diagnosis of Common Disorders” table, which summarizes significant findings in the history and physical exam and gives pertinent diagnostic tests for common disorders.

To demonstrate how various aspects of health assessment are applied, a case study is integrated into the chapter (e.g., the case patient’s social history is presented with the general social history content). A case study review concludes the chapter; it recounts the patient’s history and provides sample documentation of the history and physical examination. The sample documentation familiarizes students with proper and complete documentation and use of forms. The case study is complete with a final assessment finding, or diagnosis.

Every clinical chapter also includes “Assessment of Special Populations.” This section highlights important information on assessing pregnant, neonatal, pediatric, and geriatric patients.