Assessing the Ears, Nose, and Throat

  Assessing the Ears, Nose, and Throat Most ear, nose, and throat conditions that arise in non-critical care settings are minor in nature. However, subtle symptoms can sometimes escalate into life-threatening conditions that require prompt assessment and treatment- 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 Discussion, 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- your Discussion post should be in the Episodic/Focused SOAP Note format, rather than the traditional narrative style Discussion posting format- Case 2: Focused Throat Exam Lily is a 20-year-old student at the local community college- When some of her friends and classmates told her about an outbreak of flu-Iike symptoms sweeping her campus over the past two weeks, Lily figured she shouldn‘t take her three-day sore throat lightly. Your clinic has treated a few cases similar to Lily's. All the patients reported decreased appetite, headaches, and pain with swallowing. As Lily recounts these symptoms to you, you notice that she has a runny nose and a slight hoarseness in her voice but doesn‘t sound congested-Consider what history would be necessary to collect from the patient. 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? Identify at least 10 possible conditions that may be considered in a differential diagnosis for the patient. Post a description of the health history you would need to collect from the patient in the case study to which you were assigned. Explain what physical exams and diagnostic tests would be appropriate and how the results would be used to make a diagnosis- List five different possible conditions for the patient's differential diagnosis and justify why you selected each.