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Diagnostic Cheet Sheet
- Thread starter LilHouse
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I think a list like that might be pretty extensive unless you're really looking for basics.
I would say go ahead and try to make the chart yourself....it will help you learn and retain things better for your paramedic course rather than someone sending you a long list that you have to read over and over. Looking through the information will force you to think about it more. For paramedic level, I would think that your course materials will be sufficient.
In general, from an emergency medicine/EMS standpoint, initially focus on what things will kill a patient based on their chief complaint. Example: for chest pain, sure it could be acid reflux or a broken rib. But first start by worrying about an acute MI, pneumothorax, aortic dissection, esophageal rupture, cardiac tamponade, or pulmonary embolism.
Before you let yourself get bogged down in details of keeping all these straight though, I would definitely worry more about perfecting your skills at: 1. Making sure the scene is safe, and 2. Having your ABC managment down till it's instinct.
Good luck in paramedic school.
I would say go ahead and try to make the chart yourself....it will help you learn and retain things better for your paramedic course rather than someone sending you a long list that you have to read over and over. Looking through the information will force you to think about it more. For paramedic level, I would think that your course materials will be sufficient.
In general, from an emergency medicine/EMS standpoint, initially focus on what things will kill a patient based on their chief complaint. Example: for chest pain, sure it could be acid reflux or a broken rib. But first start by worrying about an acute MI, pneumothorax, aortic dissection, esophageal rupture, cardiac tamponade, or pulmonary embolism.
Before you let yourself get bogged down in details of keeping all these straight though, I would definitely worry more about perfecting your skills at: 1. Making sure the scene is safe, and 2. Having your ABC managment down till it's instinct.
Good luck in paramedic school.
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Definitely make the chart yourself. I've looked at charts others have made for numerous classes, but always come back to making one myself, for the following reasons:
1. I know what I need to learn. Often there are some facts omitted by others that I had to add on anyway.
2. Aids retention if you write it yourself
3. Other people's charts may be WRONG!
4. You can make up mnemonics or hints that make sense to you and incorporate them into the chart.
1. I know what I need to learn. Often there are some facts omitted by others that I had to add on anyway.
2. Aids retention if you write it yourself
3. Other people's charts may be WRONG!
4. You can make up mnemonics or hints that make sense to you and incorporate them into the chart.
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Here ya go:
Other than that, Agent Splat has great advice. "Common diseases and their symptoms" vary by every specialty in medicine, where they practice, what their patient population epidemiology characteristics are, how old their patients are, what ethnicity their patients are, whether they are primary contact or referral, etc, etc, etc ad nauseum. Your best bet would be to make a chart yourself tailored to whatever area of medicine you are attempting to apply it to. Any physician you are working with will be happy to tell you how "common" something you are seeing is, whether its something you'll see 10 times a week, 10 times a year, or 10 times a career.
As an added note, a good sort of "procedure" to go through when developing a differential are:
-Look at the symptoms/PE results and ask yourself what system is involved. Is it CV, GI, urogenital, musculoskeletal, psych, neuro, etc?
-Try to figure out what underlying process is contributing to the malfunction of the system from #1. Is it infection, neoplasm, autoimmune, trauma, endocrine imbalance, idiopathic, etc?
-Then ask yourself what is the etiology of the process. If infection, what bugs are the most common to that form of infection? If a neoplasm, what cancers induce those sort of characteristics and what is the patient's risk factors? Etc.
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