Physical diagnoses for advanced psychiatric nurse practitioners: Part I?Assessment and differential diagnosis

Abstract

Knowledge of health problems that commonly exist in the psychiatric patient population has become an integral part of psychiatric nursing practice. The purposes of this article are to organize categories of health assessment and physical examination that are most useful to the psychiatric nurse and to provide a framework for assessment of differential diagnosis of common neuropsychiatric disorders and coexisting health problems. Hypothesis generation and care planning can be enriched by attention to physical care problems that affect the provision of care for clients.