Question

You must submit a full 3-4 sentence response, plus respond to two other students on THREE Seperate days. 25 Point deduction for failing to initially respond by wednesday 11:59pm.

Head, Face and Neck
P.A. is a 32-year-old female who presents to the family practice with her 14-year-old daughter. The daughter states that her mother has been confused lately and is complaining of a headache, shortness of breath, and a cough. The cough has been persistent for 6 days, and a fever developed 2 days ago. The patient states that she is bringing up yellow-green mucus and has a cough, which gets worse at night.

Vital signs are T 100.5, P 88, R 16, and BP 110/55.
A chest x-ray reveals consolidation indicative of bacterial pneumonia. Labs and culture are pending for specific antigen. The nurse proceeds with the physical exam of the head, face, neck, and associated lymphatic system.
When performing a review of systems, the nurse obtains subjective data concerning the patient’s headache. What specific questions will assist the nurse in determining the cause of the headache? and Why?

Answer 1

Subjective data related to headache:

• Severe headache
• Dizziness
• throbbing pain
• Confusion

The specific questions of patient demographics, location, onset and duration of pain, character and intensity of pain, aggravating factors associated with headache, past medical history, medication history, family history, lifestyle factors, nutrition, previous head injury, help the nurse to identify the specific problem related to headache. Headache may also cause due to overactivity of the brain, increased stress, clinical problems like sinusitis, meningitis, hypertension, dehydration, brain tumor, etc. So the nurses have to relate the patient condition with one another to identify the exact cause for headache and to diagnose more accurately.