You are going to write your own case study based on the pathology of your choice! You are going to accomplish this by reading several case studies from academic literature and finding out as much as you can about how this condition presents itself and progresses, as well as how it would be diagnosed and treated. The goal is to connect this disorder as much as possible to the Anatomy and Physiology that you already know about while exposing you to professional quality case studies and information that came from research papers in academic journals. As such, only papers from academic journals may be used as references for this project. This is not a research paper and five paragraph theme will not be required. What I require will be exactly the following, no more and no less:
- Clinical presentation of a client with an initially unknown illness (this can be tricky if you choose something immediately evident such as TBI, so talk to me if you choose something that turns out to not be a mystery at all. There are ways to handle this scenario where you can still use the pathology you chose.)
- Progression of the pathology
- Diagnostic tests used to rule out other pathologies with similar presentations and correctly diagnose your pathology. (Tests are not to confirm what you think you know – clinical testing is to rule out many possibilities and whittle the differential down to the fewest number of possibilities. Students often struggle with this concept)
- Medical and/or surgical treatments for this pathology
- Clinical outcome. Some pathologies can be cured, most can be treated. Your imaginary client may even decline treatment! If you chose an unorthodox path for your client’s clinical outcome, try to have a psychological or sociocultural justification for your decision eg, can’t afford it, their religion prohibits their treatment options etc., they chose alternative medicine. If your client chooses alternative medicine, let me know how that goes, and use references!
Every choice you make in your case study should be a reference to an academic work. Lab results can be similar to pre-existing case studies if you cite them in-text. Lists of signs and symptoms should be cited. Treatments should be cited from journal articles about those treatments. And so on. None of this is coming from your imagination, so all of it should be cited. I should be seeing in-text citations everywhere, APA format, and a references section at the end where I can immediately tell that you followed all of my directions about the quality of your references.
Your grade for each topic will be based on: grammar/syntax; appropriate use of in-text citations with matching reference; accuracy of the science; following instructions; completeness
To drive home the fact that I don’t want a complexly written essay, here’s a format to help you. If it only takes one page, I will be exstatic:
| Topic | Body | Grade (for instructor use only) |
| Presentation | ||
| Progression | ||
| Diagnostic tests | ||
| Treatment | ||
| Outcome |
References Section in APA goes here. MINIMUM Of 5 sources, of which 1 may be A&P Applications Manual and 4 or more must be articles and case studies published in academic journals
