Advanced Assessment
Interpreting Findings And Formulating Differential Diagnoses
Author: Mary Jo Goolsby, Laurie Grubbs

Product Details
pages: 529 pages
Publisher: F. A. Davis Company
ISBN: 0803613636
Average Customer Review: N/A
Format: PDF

The idea for this book evolved over several years, while teaching an advanced health assessment course designed primarily for nurse practitioner (NP) students. Although
many health assessment texts have been available, they have lacked an essential component—the information needed to arrive at a reasonably narrow differential diagnosis of a patient who presents with one of the almost endless possible complaints.
We hope that this book will be helpful to advanced practice students, new practitioners,and experienced practitioners faced with new presentations.
As NPs increasingly become the providers of choice for individuals seeking primary and specialty care, the need for expertise in the assessment and diagnostic processes remains essential. In spite of the growth in available technology and diagnostic studies, performing assessment skills correctly, obtaining valid data, and interpreting the findings accurately are necessary for the safe, high-quality, and costeffective practice for which NPs are known.
Even once these skills are accomplished, accurate diagnosis remains a difficult aspect of practice. However, we noticed that students and practicing clinicians rarely referred to their health assessment book after completing their assessment course.
Instead, they tended to turn to clinical management texts, which focus on what to do once the diagnosis is known. This supported our belief that although assessment texts cover common findings for a limited range of disorders, they are not perceived as helpful in guiding the diagnostic process. Novice practitioners often spend much energy, expense, and time narrowing their differential diagnosis when they have no clear guidance that is driven by the patient and/or complaint. For this reason, our aim has been to develop a text that serves as a guide in the assessment and diagnostic
process, is broad in content, and is suitable for use in varied settings.
From Advanced Assessment to Differential Diagnosis has been designed to serve as a textbook during advanced health assessment course work, and as a quick reference
for practicing clinicians. We believe that studying the text will help students develop proficiency in performing assessment and interpreting findings, and to recognize the
range of conditions that can be indicated by specific findings. Once in practice, we believe that the text will be an aide to guide the assessment and the narrowing of differential diagnosis.
The book consists of three parts. Part 1 provides a summary discussion of assessment and some matters related to clinical decision-making. In addition to discussing
the behaviors involved in arriving at a definitive diagnosis, the chapter discusses some pitfalls that clinicians often experience and the types of evidence-based
resources that are available to assist in the diagnostic process.
Part 2 serves as the core of the book and addresses assessment and diagnosis using a system and body region approach. Each chapter in this part begins with an
overview of the comprehensive history and physical examination of a specific system, as well as a discussion of common diagnostic studies. The remainder of the chapter is then categorized by chief complaints commonly associated with that system. For each complaint, there is a description of the focused assessment relative to that complaint,
followed by a list of the conditions that should be considered in the differential diagnosis, along with the symptoms, signs, and/or diagnostic findings that would support each condition.
Finally, Part 3 addresses the assessment and diagnosis of specific populations: those at either extreme of age (young and old) and pregnant women. This part is designed to include a heavy emphasis on the assessments that allow clinicians to evaluate the special needs of individuals in these populations, such as growth and development in children and functionality in older patients.
To aid the reader, we have tried to follow a consistent format in the presentation of content so that information can be readily located. This format is admittedly grounded on the sequence we have found successful as we presented this content to our students. However, we have a great appreciation for the expertise of the contributors in this edited work, and some of the content they recommended could not consistently fit our “formula.” We hope that the organization of this text will be helpful to all readers.

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