Differential Diagnosis
4 class dates occurring during Summer Session Module 1-2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 8:30-5:30
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:30-5:30
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 9:30-5:30
Tuesday, June 25, 2013 9:30-12:30
Participants may choose to attend limited sessions
A benefit for the PT Faculty Student Scholarship Fund to assist graduate students in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program
Course description
This course is designed for licensed physical therapists with a BS or MPT degree. DPT entry-level lecture course focusing on a broad range of medical diseases and their various clinical presentations. The focus is on the use of clinical decision making skills when analyzing a patient’s medical history intake and the review of systems. The course addresses screening, to include referral for conditions or diseases that are not within a physical therapist's scope of practice.
Teaching strategies will include lecture, interactive small group activities, and interactive laboratory sessions. Patient cases with role playing, utilized for promotion of clinical decision-making and communication skills, will be used throughout the course.
Course objectives participants will learn
The primary goals of this course are to provide students with the requisite knowledge and skills to:
- Understand common pathological processes (including risk factors, clinical manifestations and medical treatment) and their impact on patient management in physical therapy.
- Integrate related examination findings and develop an appropriate physical therapist differential diagnosis, prognosis and plan of care.
- Communicate “concerning” patient health status examination findings to the appropriate source.
- Effectively utilize a medical history review and a review of systems/systems review as part of medical screening to help formulate an appropriate differential diagnosis.
Additional goals are as follows:
- Develop critical thinking and problem solving skills as well as cultural sensitivity by reflective thinking and a critical review of related literature.
- Increase confidence in the ability to make appropriate clinical decisions in a logical, systematic manner.
CEU - variable by attendance 4- 24 hours WPTA approval #14960.
Course schedule and content
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 8:30-5:30
- Course Introduction
- Medical Screening: Physical therapists’ role and responsibility
- Patient Case discussion
- Differential Diagnosis of Back Pain
- Identifying health risk factors
- Recognizing atypical symptoms and signs
- Review of systems
- Patient case
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:30-5:30
- Case Discussion (small group)
- Complications associated with fractures
- Differential Diagnosis of Limb Pain Continued
- Laboratory Session- Abdominal and Extremity Lab
- Interviewing Skills-How to ask the difficult questions.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 9:30-5:30
- What makes you a doctor? (group discussion)
- Differential Dx of Joint Pain
- Differential Dx of headache/upper quarter pain
- Skin Lesion Assessment
- (Lab): Head/Neck and shoulder girdle
- Observation
- Palpation (lymph nodes, glands)
- Cranial nerve screening
- Patient case (small group discussion)
Tuesday, June 25, 2013 9:30-12:30
- Psychological disorders
- Major clinical depression
- Suicide risk
- Patient case discussions
- Professional communication; Initiating a patient referral
- Course wrap-up
- Future Resources
Faculty
William G. Boissonnault, PT, DHSc, FAAOMPT is presently Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin. He is also a Senior Physical Therapist at the University of Wisconsin Hospital/Clinics’ Spine Physical Therapy Clinic and curriculum director of the Orthopedic Physical Therapy Clinical Residency Program at the University of Wisconsin/Meriter Hospital Residency site, Madison, Wisconsin. Bill holds adjunct physical therapy faculty positions at multiple universities.
Dr. Boissonnault received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Therapy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977; a Master of Science degree in 1982 and a Doctor of Health Science in 1999 from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in St. Augustine, Florida. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic manual Physical Therapists.
He has received the Charles Magistro Distinguished Service Award from the Foundation for Physical Therapy; the Orthopaedic Section’s Paris Distinguished Service Award; the John H P Maley Lecturer for Differential Diagnosis: Taking a Step Back Before Stepping Forward; the APTA Baethke-Carlin Award for Excellence in Academic Teaching; and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School Dean’s Teaching Award for Excellence and Innovation in Medical Education.
Dr. Boissonnault has published numerous articles on the topic of medical screening, and is the editor of Examination in Physical Therapy; Screening for Medical Disease 2nd edition, Churchill Livingstone, 1995; and Primary Care for the Physical Therapist-Examination and Triage, W.B. Saunders Co., 2005; and co-editor of Pathology; Implications for the Physical Therapist 2nd edition, WB Saunders Co., 2002.
Dr. Boissonnault was president (1995–2001) of the Orthopaedic Section of the APTA. He chairs the APTA Manipulation Task Force and the AAOMPT Practice Committee, and is a member of the Orthopaedic Section, APTA Practice Committee. Dr. Boissonnault is currently in his 6th year of serving as a APTA House of Delegates delegate for the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association.