General health assessments

The instructor in the first video in the chapter 25 Watch and Learn videos says something really important that could easily be missed if you aren't paying attention. When you are examining a particular area of the body, say the legs, don't focus just on the skin and then move on. While you are there, look at the vascularity (do you see varicose veins?); flex the knees-is the range of motion good? Any popping or grinding sounds (crepitus)? My hands are always cold, so when I forget to warm them, patients recoil and yell at me, but that also tells me they have the sensation and motion part of the CSM.

In A&P we learned the body system by system, but it doesn't work that way. Everything in interconnected, and everything influences each other. Start to think that way and make the connections when examining, when reading the text, when listening to the lectures.

Regards
Brian