Focused Notes are a way to reflect on your practicum experiences and connect the experiences to the learning you gain from your weekly Learning Resources. Focused Notes, such as the ones required in this practicum course, are often used in clinical settings to document patient care.
For this Assignment, you will work with an adolescent patient that you examined during the last 3 weeks and complete a Focused Note Template in which you will gather patient information, relevant diagnostic and treatment information, and reflect on health promotion and disease prevention in light of patient factors, such as age, ethnic group, past medical history (PMH), socio-economic status, cultural background, etc. In this week’s Learning Resources, please refer to the Focused Note resources for guidance on writing Focused Notes.
To prepare:
Review the Focused Note Checklist provided in this week’s Learning Resources and consider how you will develop your Focused Note for this week’s Assignment.
Use the Focused SOAP Note Template and the example found in the Learning Resources for this week to complete this Assignment.
Select an adolescent patient that you examined during the last 3 weeks. With this patient in mind, address the following in a Focused Note.
Assignment
Subjective: What details did the patient or parent provide regarding the personal and medical history? Include any discrepancies between the details provided by the child and details provided by the parent as well as possible reasons for these discrepancies.
Objective: What observations did you make during the physical assessment? Include pertinent positive and negative physical exam findings. Describe whether the patient presented with any growth and development or psychosocial issues.
Assessment: What were your differential diagnoses? Provide a minimum of three possible diagnoses. List them from highest priority to lowest priority and include their ICD-10 code for the diagnosis. What was your primary diagnosis and why?
Plan: What was your plan for diagnostics and primary diagnosis? What was your plan for treatment and management? Include pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments, alternative therapies, and follow-up parameters as well as a rationale for this treatment and management plan.
Reflection notes: What was your “aha” moment? What would you do differently in a similar patient evaluation?
