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Discussion: HEENT Orders for Family Nurse Practitioner
A Sample Answer For the Assignment: Discussion: HEENT Orders for Family Nurse Practitioner
Title: Discussion: HEENT Orders for Family Nurse Practitioner
A middle-aged woman comes to the office saying she has throat infection. According to her, the infection began with a sudden sore throat yesterday afternoon, which has since become worse. At night, she experienced a feverish and chilly feeling. She reports that she has not had any contact with anyone else with strep throat recently. However, she says that she has previously had strep sore and that this is what it has always felt. The patient does not take any medications, but she is hypersensitive to penicillin. Physical examination shows that the patient is slender. She has a heart rate of 112, body temperature of 101°F, blood pressure of 96/64, and a respiratory rate of 22. The HEENT evaluation is positive for bilateral tonsilla swelling with no exudations. Examination shows that the neck is lithe with bilateral, inflamed, and tender frontal cervical nodes.
Differential Diagnoses
- Infectious mononucleosis: This might lead to sore throat, but it is often experienced by young adults aged between 15 and 24 years. According to Ruppert (2015), the Epstein Barr virus causes this condition, but it normally presents tonsilla inflammation with exudations and may be accompanied by abdominal pain. The diagnosis of this condition is possible through conducting a Monospot test. Nevertheless, it can take several weeks to produce a positive result using this method according to Lyden (2017). This might be the diagnosis, but the typical symptoms of mononucleosis are malaise and extreme fatigue among individuals younger than our patient.
- Acute pharyngitis: According to Ruppert (2015), this is among the top 20 reasons why patients visit healthcare providers. The condition results in an inflammation of the pharynx, either by infection or irritation. According to Lyden (2017), both adults and children can suffer from this condition.
- Bacterial: Bacterial pharyngitis is commonly caused by Group A streptococcus. Lyden (2017) explains that the commonest symptoms of bacterial pharyngitis are erythema of the tonsils or throat; discrete, patchy, yellowish, or white exudation; tender anterior cervical adenopathy, and pharyngeal petechiae. There is a high likelihood that our patient is having acute bacterial pharyngitis (most likely primary diagnosis) because of the presence of anterior cervical node tenderness.
- Viral: Rhinovirus is the most common cause of viral pharyngitis. As in the case of many other viral infections, the condition is normally self-limiting (Lyden, 2017). The condition presents several symptoms such as a cough fever, mild erythema, and nasal symptoms. While it could still be present, tender lymphadenopathy is not common (Lyden, 2017).
- Peritonsillar abscess: This is brought by pus getting within the quinsy tissue. It mostly starts with quinsy cellulitis resulting from tonsillitis that has not been treated effectively. The physician can rule this out in our patient because drooling is often accompanied by a hoarse voice. Similarly, the patient does not present complaints of pain in either side of their ears (Lyden, 2017).
- Epiglottitis: This affects the supraglottic structures, primarily the epiglottis. It is normally caused by bacterial cellulitis and can occur in case of a direct invasion or spread because of bacteremia. According to Berkow and Sakles (2015), epiglottitis is regarded as an airway emergency since the swelling can result in the inability to control secretions, as well as difficulty in breathing.
Role of H&P in the Diagnosis
Since the patient is convinced that she has strep throat, the practitioner needs to consider other conditions and rule them out. It is imperative to obtain a thorough medical history, particularly on physical examination, which helps in ruling out other diagnoses. This can be achieved by simply asking a question regarding the current illness. The physician needs to consider other questions such as whether the patient experiences any pain when swallowing: whether she has been exposed to dry heat, smoke, or heat recently; whether she has a cough; whether she has taken any medicine for her illness and whether it has made her better; whether she has had experience with any postnasal drip; whether she uses any tobacco products; as well as whether she has seen a dentist in the past (Ball, Dains, Flynn, Solomon, & Stewart, 2015). If she has seen a dentist in the past, the physician should find out how recent the visit was.
Potential Treatment Options
The type of organism that causes infection determines what treatment of acute pharyngitis to choose. It will be preferable to treat the condition using amoxicillin or penicillin because there is a high likelihood that the patient has bacterial pharyngitis and the infection is most likely caused by streptococci bacteria. Nevertheless, the patient is hypersensitive to penicillin. Thus, the next most preferred treatment medication is clarithromycin, 250mg BID taken for 10 days.
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Additional Health Promotion Strategies
As is always the case with antibiotics, it is crucial to educate the patient regarding the need to adhere to the full course of antibiotics as
prescribed, as well as the risk of not complying with the full dosage. It is crucial to talk about the inauspicious effects of the antibiotics and the ones that the physician needs to report. Treatment should aim to eliminate more complications from this bacteria strain, which can result in glomerulonephritis or rheumatic fever (Lyden, 2017). The physician might also administer alternative treatment options including local anesthetics for the treatment of headaches, fever, and sore throat (Donowitz, 2018). Treatment could also be done with analgesics. Providers also need to educate patients regarding hand-washing, proper oral hygiene, as well as the various ways in which the spread of infection can be avoided.
Socio-cultural Barriers
These might include the lack of insurance, time to visit the physician, and means of transportation. There could also be influences from family and friends regarding the illness, which could affect the patient’s decision to make appropriate treatment decisions.
Discussion: Diagnosing HEENT Disorders
In clinical settings, advanced practice nurses may initiate a physical examination of a patient by examining the components of the HEENT system. Assessing primary diagnoses and differential diagnoses as they concern the HEENT system are important in informing your practice in providing optimal care.
For this Discussion, consider the following three case studies of patients presenting with head, eyes, ears, nose, and throat disorders.
Case Study 3
A middle-aged female presents to the office complaining of strep throat. She states she suddenly developed a sore throat yesterday afternoon, and it has gotten worse since then. During the night she felt like she was chilled and feverish. She denies known recent contact with anyone else who had strep throat, but states she has had strep before and it feels like she has strep now. She takes no medications, but is allergic to penicillin. The physical examination reveals a slender female lying on the examination table. She has a temperature of 101 degrees Fahrenheit, heart rate of 112, respiratory rate of 22, and blood pressure of 96/64. The head, eyes, ears, nose, and throat evaluation is positive for bilateral tonsillar swelling without exudates. Her neck is supple with bilateral, tender, enlarged anterior cervical nodes.
To prepare:
Review the case studies provided in this week’s Resources.
You will either select or be assigned one of the three case studies provided.
Reflect on the provided patient information including history and physical exams.
Think about a differential diagnosis. Consider the role the patient history and physical exam played in your diagnosis.
Reflect on potential treatment options based on your diagnosis.
Post an explanation of the primary diagnosis, as well as 3 differential diagnoses, for the patient in the case study you selected. Describe the role of the patient history and physical exam played in the diagnosis. Then, suggest potential treatment options based on your patient diagnosis.
Lopes Write Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to Lopes Write, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Important information for writing discussion questions and participation
Welcome to class
Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to
I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.
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Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.
Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.
I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!
Hi Class,
Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.
Contact me if you have any questions.
Important information on Writing a Discussion Question
- Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
- There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
- Include in-text citations in your response
- Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
- Follow APA-7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor
- A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
- Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
- Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
- Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
- Follow APA 7th edition
- Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
- Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
- Here are some helpful links
- Student paper example
- Citing Sources
- The Writing Center is a great resource