Chapter 2 Clinical Reasoning, Assessment, and Recording Your Findings

Chapter 2  Clinical Reasoning, Assessment, and Recording Your Findings

Complete Chapter Questions And Answers
 

Sample Questions

Multiple Choice

1. A patient presents for evaluation of a sharp, aching chest pain which increases with breathing. Which anatomic area would you localize the symptom to?
A) Musculoskeletal
B) Reproductive
C) Urinary
D) Endocrine

Ans: A
Chapter: 02
Page and Header: 27, Assessment and Plan: The Process of Clinical Reasoning
Feedback: Chest pain may be due to a musculoskeletal condition, such as costochondritis or intercostal muscle cramp. This would be worsened by motion of the chest wall. Pleuritic chest pain is also a sharp chest pain which increases with a deep breath. This type of pain can occur with inflammation of the pleura from pneumonia or other conditions and pulmonary embolus.

2. A patient comes to the emergency room for evaluation of shortness of breath. To which anatomic region would you assign the symptom?
A) Reproductive
B) Urinary
C) Cardiac
D) Hematologic

Ans: C
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Page and Header: 27, Assessment and Plan: The Process of Clinical Reasoning
Feedback: Cardiac disorders such as congestive heart failure are the most likely on this list to result in shortness of breath. There are cases within the other categories which may also result in shortness of breath, such as anemia in the hematologic category, pregnancy in the reproductive category, or sepsis with UTI in the urinary category. This demonstrates the “tension” in clinical reasoning between making sure all possibilities are covered, while still being able to pick the most likely cause.

3. A patient presents for evaluation of a cough. Which of the following anatomic regions can be responsible for a cough?
A) Ophthalmologic
B) Auditory
C) Cardiac
D) Endocrine

Ans: C
Chapter: 02
Page and Header: 27, Assessment and Plan: The Process of Clinical Reasoning
Feedback: The cardiac system can cause a cough if the patient has congestive heart failure. This results in fluid buildup in the lungs, which in turn can cause a cough that produces pink, frothy sputum. A foreign body in the ear may also cause a cough by stimulating Arnold’s branch of the vagus nerve, but this is less likely to be seen clinically than heart failure.

4. A 22-year-old advertising copywriter presents for evaluation of joint pain. The pain is new, located in the wrists and fingers bilaterally, with some subjective fever. The patient denies a rash; she also denies recent travel or camping activities. She has a family history significant for rheumatoid arthritis. Based on this information, which of the following pathologic processes would be the most correct?
A) Infectious
B) Inflammatory
C) Hematologic
D) Traumatic

Ans: B
Chapter: 02
Page and Header: 27, Assessment and Plan: The Process of Clinical Reasoning
Feedback: The description is most consistent with an inflammatory process, although all the other etiologies should be considered. Lyme disease is an infection which commonly causes arthritis, hemophilia is a hematologic condition which can cause bleeding in the joints, and trauma can obviously cause joint pain. Your clinical reasoning skills are important for sorting through all of the data to arrive at the most likely conclusion.

5. A 47-year-old contractor presents for evaluation of neck pain, which has been intermittent for several years. He normally takes over-the-counter medications to ease the pain, but this time they haven’t worked as well and he still has discomfort. He recently wallpapered the entire second floor in his house, which caused him great discomfort. The pain resolved with rest. He denies fever, chills, rash, upper respiratory symptoms, trauma, or injury to the neck. Based on this description, what is the most likely pathologic process?
A) Infectious
B) Neoplastic
C) Degenerative
D) Traumatic

Ans: C
Chapter: 02
Page and Header: 27, Assessment and Plan: The Process of Clinical Reasoning
Feedback: The description is most consistent with degenerative arthritis in the neck. The patient has had intermittent symptoms and the questions asked to elicit pertinent negative and positive findings are negative for infectious, traumatic, or neoplastic disease.