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

·         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.

Solution Preview

Chief Complaint (CC): M.C hascome to the healthcare setting due to pain in her skin in the hands. 

History of Present Illness (HPI): M. C is a 39-year-old lady who has come to healthcare due to the issue of skin since she is having pain in a part of his skin. She is of an African race and has come with the assertion that she has had the pain for the last 20 days before she decided to come to the healthcare clinic for health services. The pain started when she was taking a bath since she observed a growth like a wart in her hand. One having an examination of the condition she argues that she had issues of reddening of the skin and she felt an irritation. The patient points out that she used dental floss for removal but she did not succeed in doing so. The pain that she is experiencing is 3 out of 10. 

Medications: 

The patient has used different medications to help in the management of the condition. The patient has used Zolot 25 mg daily, hydrocodone 325 mg 4 times a day, Neurontin 300 mg. 

Allergies: 

MC does not have any known issues of allergies with the drugs being used

Past Medical History (PMH): The patient is faced with different health challenges where she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 4 years ago that resulted in her admission. 

(click here to get full solution for only $10)