A 70-year-old male patient presented to your clinic with complaint of a “wet cough” x 2 weeks. Confirms fever, mild dyspnea on exertion, chills, tachycardia, and chest congestion. Describes cough as reproductive with clear to yellow sputum. Medical history is unremarkable. He reports nicotine dependence for 30 years smoking 1 pack per day. On inspection, patient appeared to be tachypneic with respiratory rate at 30, appeared to have shallow breathing with crackles heard in all lung fields.
Discuss at least five questions you would ask this patient to elicit a history about the patient’s symptoms.
List three physical findings in the respiratory examination that will concern you as the nurse.
What differential diagnosis would you consider as the nurse practitioner seeing this patient?