Posted: March 24th, 2022

Assignment 1: Lab Assignment: Differential Diagnosis for Skin Conditions

Assignment 1: Lab Assignment: Differential Diagnosis for Skin Conditions

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.

Submit your Lab Assignment.

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Differential Diagnosis for Skin Conditions is the first lab assignment.

Differential diagnosis is a process of elimination used to correctly determine the origin and type of a patient’s skin problem. A health professional can use this technique to narrow down a set of physical abnormalities, vital signs, health assessment findings, and patient accounts of symptoms until one diagnosis is identified as the most likely reason.

You will study many visual representations of various skin disorders, describe your observations, and utilize differential diagnosis procedures to select the most likely condition in this Lab Assignment.

To Get Ready

Review the Skin Conditions paper in this week’s Learning Resources and choose one condition to investigate further for this Lab Assignment.

Consider the abnormal

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