Assessment Of The Skin, Hair, And Nails

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Assessment Of The Skin, Hair, And Nails

Assignment 1: Lab Assignment: Differential Diagnosis for Skin Conditions

Properly identifying the cause and type of a patient’s skin condition involves a process of elimination known as differential diagnosis. Using this process, a health professional can take a given set of physical abnormalities, vital signs, health assessment findings, and patient descriptions of symptoms, and incrementally narrow them down until one diagnosis is determined as the most likely cause.

In this Lab Assignment, you will examine several visual representations of various skin conditions, describe your observations, and use the techniques of differential diagnosis to determine the most likely condition. Assessment Of The Skin, Hair, And Nails

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To Prepare

  • Review the Skin Conditions document provided in this week’s Learning Resources, and select one condition to closely examine for this Lab Assignment.
  • Consider the abnormal physical characteristics you observe in the graphic you selected. How would you describe the characteristics using clinical terminologies?
  • Explore different conditions that could be the cause of the skin abnormalities in the graphics you selected.
  • Consider which of the conditions is most likely to be the correct diagnosis, and why.
  • Search the Walden library for one evidence-based practice, peer-reviewed article based on the skin condition you chose for this Lab Assignment.
  • Review the Comprehensive SOAP Exemplar found in this week’s Learning Resources to guide you as you prepare your SOAP note.
  • Download the SOAP Template found in this week’s Learning Resources, and use this template to complete this Lab Assignment. Assessment Of The Skin, Hair, And Nails

The Lab Assignment

  • Choose one skin condition graphic (identify by number in your Chief Complaint) to document your assignment in the SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan) note format rather than the traditional narrative style. Refer to Chapter 2 of the Sullivan text and the Comprehensive SOAP Template in this week’s Learning Resources for guidance. Remember that not all comprehensive SOAP data are included in every patient case.
  • Use clinical terminologies to explain the physical characteristics featured in the graphic. Formulate a differential diagnosis of three to five possible conditions for the skin graphic that you chose. Determine which is most likely to be the correct diagnosis and explain your reasoning using at least three different references, one reference from current evidence-based literature from your search and two different references from this week’s Learning Resources. Assessment Of The Skin, Hair, And Nails

Diagnosis

Hepatitis C is a viral disease that leads to the swelling or inflammation of the liver. It is caused by Hepatitis C virus and the disease is transmitted through long-term kidney dialysis, or having regular contact with blood at work such as a health care worker, have unprotected sex with someone infected with hepatitis C, use of injected street drugs, and share a needle with someone who has hepatitis C. Its symptoms include itchy skin, poor appetite, ease of bleeding and fatigue. On the other hand, gastrointestinal tract disorder refers to any health problem that occurs in the digestive tract characterized with symptoms such as fatigue, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Hepatitis C and gastrointestinal tract disorder can occur at the same time and therefore referred to as multiple disorders that have some symptoms commonalities. Assessment Of The Skin, Hair, And Nails

Plan Based on the Patient’s History and Diagnosis

There are several diagnosis tests for Hepatitis C. One of the tests is the Magnetic resonance elastography commonly known as the MRE. It combines magnetic resonance imaging technology with various patterns formed by sound waves that bounce off the liver, thus creating a visual map showing gradients of stiffness throughout the liver. Diagnosis of gastrointestinal tract disorder is a very sensitive process that requires accurate medical history of the patient, symptoms experienced among other significant information. One of the diagnosis tests for gastrointestinal tract disorder is the endoscopy that involves the insertion of a long, flexible tube referred to as the endoscope with a tiny camera down the throat and into the esophagus to enable the medical provider examines the esophagus, stomach, and the small intestines.

For effective treatment of hepatitis C and gastrointestinal tract disorder, the medical provider should consider the patient’s medical history like the drugs prescribed, and an individual patient factor such as drug abuse to develop an effective treatment for the disorder.  Antihistamine or anticholinergic such as diphenhydramine is the other drug therapy. It is administered at 25-50mg at an interval of six to eight hours. Diphenhydramine drug therapy causes drowsiness, confusion and dry mouth. Promethazine is administered to a patient with  hepatitis C at an interval of four to six hours as prescribed. This particular drug therapy is associated with negative effects such as sedation,agitation, dry mouth and blurred vision. Gastrointestinal disorder is treated by proton pump that uses the energy of ATP to secrete protons into the stomach and suppresses acid secretion.

Conclusion

This patient has a known drug abuse history and possible Hepatitis C disease. We should ask about the type, amount, method, and time of last substances used to see if symptoms are related to prior use or withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms may include agitation, anxiety, muscle aches, sweating, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting (Ba, 2019). These drug therapies are recommendable for a patient who is a drug abuser and is nauseous because promethazine is used to prevent and treat nausea and vomiting related to drug abuse. Diphenhydramine is an antihistamine also used to prevent and treat nausea, vomiting and dizziness caused by motion sickness. Assessment Of The Skin, Hair, And Nails

References

Ba, C. (2019). Prescription drug addiction. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health. Retrieved from

https://search-ebscohost-com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=

ers&AN=94415512&site=eds-live&scope=site

Kirgyez N. Z. (2020). Hepatitis C virus prevalence and level of intervention required to achieve the WHO targets for elimination in the European Union

by 2030. Modern pharmacotherapy of chronic hepatitis C in patients who failed to achieve sustained virologic response, 2 (5), 325-336 Assessment Of The Skin, Hair, And Nails