H&P Advice

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

emidesu

Senior Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
20+ Year Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2000
Messages
224
Reaction score
1
I've been struggling with remembering everything during H&P's (I'm a first year). Does anyone have suggestions as to how to get better at this?
 
I've been struggling with remembering everything during H&P's (I'm a first year). Does anyone have suggestions as to how to get better at this?

repetition, repetition, repetition.....
 
I've been struggling with remembering everything during H&P's (I'm a first year). Does anyone have suggestions as to how to get better at this?

Mnemonics help. I came up with this to jog my memory as we go through the systems :

ASSET
ICED
LMN

ASSET - Assymetry, Size, Shape, Edema, Tenderness (also could be Temperature, Texture, Turgor)
ICED - Inflammation, Color, Erythema, Distribution (ie hair, pigment, also could be Discharge)
LMN - Lesions, Masses, Nodules

For color of skin, remember the flag - Red, white and blue with a yellow flagpole - erythema, pallor, cyanosis, and jaundice.
 
Oh, you asked about history, too. There are lots of mnemonics floating around for history; here's the one I use.

CC - OLDCARTS
O - Onset
L- Location
D- Duration
C - Character
A - Agrravating
R - Relieving
T - Temporal
S - Severity

PMH - TIMMASH

T - Transfusions, Travel
I - Immunizations
M - Medications
M- Medical Illnesses, current, childhood
A - Allergies
S- Surgical Hist
H - Hospitalizations

FH

SH - MDLOADST

M- Married
D -Diet
L - Living situation
O - Occupation
A - Alcohol
D -Drugs
S - Sex
T - Tobacco
 
I really like the above mnemonics but before you get to that level of detail I like...

C chief complaint
H history of present illness
A allergies
M meds
O occupational hx
S social history

P past med hx
P past surg hx
P past psych hx
 
Don't forget good old OPQRST for evaluating sypmtoms:

Onset (when did it start?)
Palliative/provocative factors (what makes it better or worse?)
Quality (sharp? stabbing? throbbing? etc.)
Radiating?
Severity (1-10)
Timing (Happen at night? Morning? After eating? etc.)

For review of systems and the physical, start from the top and work down.:luck:
 
We have oldcharts for our hpi --

onset
location
duration
character
has it ever happened before
aggravating factors
relieving factors
timing
severity
 
thanks everyone...pray for me too?
 
Repetition helps... can't remember where I read that... but for what it's worth, repetition helps.
 
Top