Discussion: 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.

Note: By Day 1 of this week, your Instructor will have assigned you to one of the following specific case studies for this Discussion. Also, your Discussion post should be in the Episodic/Focused SOAP Note format, (see soap file) rather than the traditional narrative style Discussion posting format. Refer to Chapter 2 of the Sullivan text and the Episodic/Focused SOAP Template in the Week 5 Learning Resources for guidance. Remember that all Episodic/Focused SOAP notes have specific data included in every patient case.

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-like 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.

To prepare:

With regard to the case study you were assigned:

· Review this week’s Learning Resources and consider the insights they provide.

· 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 5 possible conditions that may be considered in a differential diagnosis for the patient.

Write: 

an episodic/focused note about the patient in the case study to which you were assigned using the episodic/focused note template provided in week 5 resources. Provide evidence from the literature to support diagnostic tests that would be appropriate for each case. 

List five different possible conditions for the patient’s differential diagnosis and justify why you selected each.

 

1. Please share how physical assessment is performed in your practice area. How do you determine what type of physical assessment is appropriate in caring for your patients? Do you perform complete head to toe assessments, or are they typically more focused exams? (If you do not currently work in a patient care setting, you may reflect on observations from a clinical experience or prior work setting.)
2. Based on your observations, do you feel that patient assessments performed in practice are as thorough as they should be? Explain your answer.
3. Reflect on the assessment you performed for the video assignment. Perhaps you might compare your performance now, to how it might have been different when you were a brand new nurse? Or share something you learned (or were reminded of) by participating in this activity?

 

Please review the Discussion Board Participation grading rubric under Course Resources in the Grading Rubrics section. 

This is important information that will ensure that you earn maximum points. Your postings should be qualitative and provide substantive depth that advances the discussion. 

Please see the Writing Center located in the student portal for assistance with writing, APA, and online communication. 

Topic: Application of Standards of Care

For the case scenario, discuss the standard(s) of care that the parties will be held to in this case. How will the standards of care and the Nurse Practice Act for your state be applied in a court of law if the case is sued?

Case Scenario

SK, age 61, was admitted to the hospital. Because of understaffing of nurses in the hospital, her assigned RN did not assess her often enough and did not monitor her oxygen level.

SK went to the hospital with what she thought was a bad cold, and was admitted with a diagnosis of pneumonia. Following admission, she became increasingly feverish and short of breath, but her family’s calls for help went unanswered. In fact, her daughter was unable to find anyone when she went to the nurses’ station looking for help. The patient eventually stopped breathing, and someone finally responded to the family’s desperate and frantic calls for help. SK was successfully resuscitated, but sustained brain damage due to oxygen deprivation. She was left unable to walk, talk, or care for herself.

There were 41 other patients on this unit. Although the hospital’s own staffing standards called for 5 registered nurses and 2 licensed practical nurses to staff this unit, only 3 registered nurses were on duty. Records for the unit in question indicated that the hospital failed to meet its own staffing standards for 51 out of 59 days before this incident.

3 references need

  

RESEARCH PAPER

this project will allow you to formulate and hypothetically develop your own research project. The purpose of this project is for the student to complete all the different steps necessary to implement a nursing research project.  This project will be subdivided into 4 different papers that will be submitted throughout the entire semester. . Please see separate file  items for each phase specific instructions 

Phase 1-Planning (Due by WEEK 4)

Phase 2-Design (Due by WEEK 6)

Phase 3-Implementation (Due by WEEK 9)

Phase 4-Results (Due by WEEK 11)

How will you approach your studies? What types of resources are available to you, and how will you access and utilize them? Taking the opportunity to prepare these strategies, tools, and materials will help ensure you can “break ground” without incident and successfully move to the phase where you begin building your vision.

To Prepare:

• Consider your goals for academic accomplishments while a student of the MSN program.
• Reflect on the strategies presented in the Resources for this module.

The Assignment:

In this Assignment, you will continue developing your Academic Success and Professional Development Plan by appending the original document you began in the previous Assignment to develop the second component—academic resources and strategies. To accomplish this:

• Identify and describe at least three academic resources or strategies that can be applied to the MSN program
• Identify and describe at least three professional resources that can be applied to success in the nursing practice in general or your specialty in particular
• Explain how you intend to use these resources, and how they might benefit you academically and professionally.

 Academic and Professional Success Plan Template 

  

Week 2 | Part 2: Academic Resources and Strategies

I have identified the following academic resources and/or strategies that can be applied to success in the nursing practice in general or my specialty in particular.

Directions: In the space below Identify and describe at least three academic resources or strategies that can be applied to the MSN program, and at least three professional resources that can be applied to success in the nursing practice in general or your specialty in particular. For each, explain how you intend to use these resources, and how they might benefit you academically and professionally.

Academic Resource/Strategy 1

Academic Resource/Strategy 2

Academic Resource/Strategy 3

Professional Resource/Strategy 1

Professional Resource/Strategy 2

Professional Resource/Strategy 3

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES/STRATEGIES

  

| Part 3: Strategies to Promote Academic Integrity and Professional Ethics

I have analyzed the relationship between academic integrity and writing, as well as the relationship between professional practices and scholarly ethics. I have also identified strategies I intend to pursue to maintain integrity and ethics of my academic work while a student of the MSN program, as well as my professional work as a nurse throughout my career. The results of these efforts are shared below.

Directions: In the space below craft your analysis/writing sample, including Part 1 (The Connection Between Academic and Professional Integrity) and Part 2 (Strategies for Maintaining Integrity of Work).

Part 1: Writing Sample: The Connection Between Academic and Professional Integrity

In the space below write a 2- 3-paragraph analysis that includes the following:

· Explanation for the relationship between academic integrity and writing

· Explanation for the relationship between professional practices and scholarly ethics 

· Cite at least 2 resources that support your arguments, being sure to use proper APA formatting. 

· Use Grammarly and SafeAssign to improve the product.

· Explain how Grammarly, Safe Assign, and paraphrasing contributes to academic integrity

  

PART 2: Strategies for Maintaining Integrity of Work

Expand on your thoughts from Part 1 by: 

· Identifying and describing strategies you intend to pursue to maintain integrity and ethics of your 1) academic work while a student of the MSN program, and 2) professional work as a nurse throughout your career. Include a review of resources and approaches you propose to use as a student and a professional.