Discussion: Patient History Analysis

Your final project should discuss the following critical elements. Make sure you review your final project before you submit it, and make sure it discusses all the critical elements and answers the questions.

Patient History Analysis

a) Did you summarize the patient history, explaining key patient demographics and family history that could be risk factors for

common diseases?

b) Have you identified the past diagnosis (or diagnoses, if more than one exists in the file) and explained how the diagnosis was

made? Specifically, what tests were done?

c) Did you discuss the symptoms the patient showed according to the file? Did you discuss why and how these symptoms led the

doctors to order certain tests?

Discussion: Patient History Analysis

d) Did you include what alternate diagnosis (or diagnoses) these symptoms could have indicated? Did you use evidence-based

resources to support your conclusions?

e) Using supportive details from peer-reviewed resources, did you explain the pathophysiology of the diagnosis? In other words,

how does the diagnosed disease develop and progress in the body?

f) Have you identified the past prescribed medications the patient is taking and explained the purposes of their larger

pharmacological groupings?

g) Did you explain what symptoms the specific medications are meant to treat, using resources to support your claims about the

impact of the medication on the symptoms?

h) Did you illustrate how these medications impact the body and its functions? Did you include examples to support your

explanations?

Recent Visit Analysis

a) Did you explain why the patient has returned to the doctor’s office? Did you discuss what symptoms and signs the patient is

experiencing?

b) Did you analyze the new symptoms and signs to determine whether the past diagnosis is still a reasonable conclusion or could

have been a misdiagnosis? Did you use specific information from both the recent visit and the patient history to inform your analysis?

c) Based on the new signs, symptoms, and potential diagnosis (if the doctor has made a new diagnosis), did you discuss what new or potential treatments would be appropriate? Why?

III. Identification of Record Inaccuracies

a) The patient file contains several inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Using your knowledge of medical terminology, anatomy, and

physiology, did you articulate three issues you have identified?

b) Did you explain in detail what makes the identified issues a problem in terms of patient health and record keeping? Did you use

appropriate medical terminology, references to anatomy, and concepts of normal physiology, where appropriate?

c) Did you discuss the impact of the issues on the patient, the coding system, and the billing system if they had not been caught,

using the appropriate terminology?

d) Did you illustrate how you would work to address each issue, with specific detail regarding who you would pull into the

discussion and who would be responsible for the particular details of each issue in a real medical setting?

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

 

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.