Formulating a Differential Diagnosis

This one-of-a-kind resource is designed to help Advanced Practice Provider students master the process of conducting a quality differential diagnosis. It contains 95 symptom-based cases that empower readers to practice and hone their clinical skills. Consistently formatted, patient-based case scenarios begin with a common symptom and provide expert guidance to help students work though a diagnosis. Diagnostic reasoning for each clinical scenario is presented step-by-step and each step is explicitly linked to the next. They are now organized by body system and coordinate with related texts for easy reference.

Cases include focused patient history questions and responses, physical exam findings, a differential diagnosis table, a diagnostic examination table, and a summary analyzing the critical thinking process. Symptoms are presented via a systematic case study approach that encompasses chief complaint, past history, physical exam, case study, differential diagnosis, diagnostic exam, and clinical decision making. Boxes comparing clinical characteristics and differential diagnosis further help to illuminate the decision-making process.

New to the Third Edition:

• Includes 23 completely new cases
• Delivers 55 Test Bank Multiple Choice Questions for instructors to assign
• Provides online access to 18 additional cases
• Reorganized by body system for easy reference
• Presented in two-color design for ease of use

Key Features:

• Provides step-by-step approach to building sound clinical decision-making skills
• Links each step to the next for utmost clarity
• Guides APP students and novice practitioners in conducting a problem-focused history and examination
• Presents cases systematically for ease of use
• Includes unique differential diagnosis tables and diagnostic examination tables to clarify decision-making strategies
• Illuminates decision making with boxes comparing clinical characteristics and differential diagnosis

About the Authors

Jacqueline Rhoads, PhD, APRN-BC, CNL-BC, PMHNP-BE, FAANP, holds three board certifications as an acute care nurse practitioner, adult gerontology nurse practitioner, and clinical nurse leader. She is board eligible as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. She has more than 30 years of clinical experience in leadership, critical care, acute care, and primary care nursing.

Dr. Rhoads teaches in graduate and baccalaureate programs in acute and primary care and in the family and adult nurse partitioner tracks. She has special interest in advance health assessment and pharmacology. She has authored six major advanced practice textbooks related to advanced health assessment, differential diagnoses, and clinical management of psych/mental health, as well as numerous peer-reviewed articles. She has held research positions such as project director, principal investigator, and project coordinator in three major universities. Her areas of research include investigating posttraumatic stress disorder post-Vietnam, Desert Storm, and disaster-related situations.

Julie Penick, DNP, PhD, MSN, FNP-BC, maintains both an active family practice, specializing in complementary and alternative health care modalities, and an education practice where she is full-time lead faculty in an MSN-FNP program at Herzing University. Dr. Penick earned her MSN in adult health nursing in 1992, her post-master’s family nurse practitioner certificate in 1996, her PhD in Energy Medicine in 2003, and her DNP in 2011.

Dr. Penick has been involved with numerous research projects and continues to be involved in research projects that involve the application of ‘energy’ as healing approaches – be that nutrient energy, subtle energy techniques, application of magnetic field energy, and application of direct or indirect current. Dr. Penick is active in curriculum writing and conducting continuing professional education for nurses. Dr. Penick has been a certified family nurse practitioner through the American Nurse Credentialing Center (ANCC) for more than 25 years.