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NURS 6521 Walden University Differential Diagnosis for Skin Conditions Lab Report
NURS 6521 Walden University Differential Diagnosis for Skin Conditions Lab Report
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.
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.
THE LAB ASSIGNMENT
- Instead of writing your assignment in the conventional narrative style, choose one skin condition graphic (identify by number in your Chief Complaint) and use the SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan) note format. For guidance, consult the Comprehensive SOAP Template in this week’s learning resources as well as Chapter 2 of the Sullivan text. Keep in mind that not every patient case contains all comprehensive SOAP data. NURS 6521 Walden University Differential Diagnosis for Skin Conditions Lab Report
- Explain the physical characteristics shown in the graphic using medical jargon. Create a differential diagnosis for the skin graphic you selected, listing three to five potential conditions. Decide which diagnosis is most likely to be accurate and support your conclusions with at least three different references, including two from this week’s learning resources and one from recent evidence-based literature that you found during your search. NURS 6521 Walden University Differential Diagnosis for Skin Conditions Lab Report