Patient assessment

[bigdogems]

SAMPLE and OPQRST are useful tools when teaching people how to do an assessment and helping to remember what questions need to be asked. But as said by others there are a ton of things that those generic questions dont answer. ie Chest Pain: Have you recently had a cough? If so have you been coughing anything up? What color is it? Is the pain worse when you take a deep breath? Is the pain worsened with palpation? Have you ever had this before? All very important questions that wouldnt be covered with a generic sample. Not to mention you will find plenty of pts that tell you they have no medical problems but then take out their full page med list