step 2 CS question

[radpad9]

Hey guys,

So i'm just taking my CS in 1-2 weeks. I was looking at the new patient note form and it says to support your differential diagnosis with history and physical findings on exam. My question is what do you put down in following scenario for physical findings?

Let's say a 55 year old male comes in with bloody stools and upon further questioning he has change in bowel habits, loss of appetite, weight loss, family hx of colon cancer, etc. You do a physical exam and it's absolutely unremarkable. Abdominal exam - BS+, non-tender, non-distended, no organomegaly or masses felt. You get the point. So most people will include Colon Ca as 1 of top 3 DDx.

So I can see what you will put down for history findings under DDx of colon cancer, but what would you put down under physical findings? Do you leave it blank?

This new format makes very little sense in my opinion.

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[WiseGuy1]

I really struggled with this during my exam. There were so many times where I was pretty confident of my differential diagnosis, but the physical exam was completely unremarkable. I just left that part blank. It made this easy test frustrating because I had such an uneasy feeling after leaving that part blank for several different patients.

 

[Retro Virus]

I plan on putting pertinent negatives - so for this guy on the PE for colon cancer I might say "no rebound tenderness, no fever, no LLQ pain" because these place things like IBD or diverticulosis way lower on my ddx

 

[Olenadr]

Hey guys,

So i'm just taking my CS in 1-2 weeks. I was looking at the new patient note form and it says to support your differential diagnosis with history and physical findings on exam. My question is what do you put down in following scenario for physical findings?

Let's say a 55 year old male comes in with bloody stools and upon further questioning he has change in bowel habits, loss of appetite, weight loss, family hx of colon cancer, etc. You do a physical exam and it's absolutely unremarkable. Abdominal exam - BS+, non-tender, non-distended, no organomegaly or masses felt. You get the point. So most people will include Colon Ca as 1 of top 3 DDx.

So I can see what you will put down for history findings under DDx of colon cancer, but what would you put down under physical findings? Do you leave it blank?

This new format makes very little sense in my opinion.

It is ok to leave it blank.
In some cases, if patient appeared lethargic, that was placed under my physical findings.

BTW, I took this new format and passed

 

[Wilf]

I have another CS question and did not want to start another thread. Do most guys wear ties to this test?

 

[EM4Reals]

I have another CS question and did not want to start another thread. Do most guys wear ties to this test?

Everyone was wearing a tie