Question Answered step-by-step A 14-yr-old male patient presents to your clinic complaining of… A 14-yr-old male patient presents to your clinic complaining of sore throat and cough. He has been feeling ill for about 1 week, and has had no fever, nasal congestion, or runny nose. He says he feels tired and his mom states that he hasn’t been getting out of bed to go to school for the past few days. He is a previously healthy young man without any significant medical history. Physical examination is remarkable only for a mildly erythematous throat without petechiae. Lungs are clear, and the rest of his exam is normal. Vital signs are also within normal limits. A rapid strep screen is negative and you diagnose him with a viral syndrome and recommend symptomatic relief. The patient and his mother return the next week as he is still complaining of a sore throat. Mom seems most concerned that he is much less active than he usually is and that he has been truant from school. You question him about how he is feeling, and he tells you that his “mom just won’t get off [my] back.” With further questioning, it is revealed that he has had a marked change in his performance at school and that he no longer plays on the soccer team. At that point, you ask the patient if he would like to talk to you without his mom present (with her permission, of course). When you are able to talk alone, he confides that he has been smoking pot at least once every day for the past month or so. He doesn’t think that this is a “big deal” and states that “everyone he knows does it too.” 1. How would you approach the patient (either cooperative or resistant)? 2. What data do you need to collect or what initial screening should be done? 3. What other medications/drugs/alcohol is the patient using? 4. What internal and external obstacles and biases might the patient and parent face? 5. What internal and external obstacles and biases might the health care provider face? 6. What do you do now? 7. How does the health care provider make a referral? 8. When and how should the physician follow up with the patient? Health Science Science Nursing NUR 123 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)