In this case study assignment, you will be asked to read a real-world scenario and, based on this information and information you gather from outside sources, you will form conclusions about a patient’s condition and appropriate treatments. Case studies are something you will often run across in preparing for and maintaining your healthcare career, as they give you the opportunity to mentally work through a problem before being faced with it in the real world.
Scenario
A well-developed, well-nourished 16-year-old African American female reporting no previous health concerns presents to your urgent care facility with an odd blemish on her left cheek. She has presented papers of family emancipation to the facility, which are accepted. She relates her accelerated high school graduation. She is a marketing major at Columbia. She is financing her education through her occupation as a facial cosmetics model and does runway fashion in New York and Milan.
She reports that her facial “beauty mark” has changed size and color. She reports that her other modeling friends warned her to go see a doctor. She expresses fear that her modeling career may be in jeopardy, thus putting her education in jeopardy as well. The young woman is frightened.
Upon examination, you see the woman has a left nevus, lateral to the lip margin. Under a magnifier, the 0.5-centimeter nevus has expanded to a 1-centimeter area that appears blue and brown. There is a solid, brown-pigmented round side that blends into a blue area with an irregular border. A consult is requested, and a procedure is performed.
Prompt
How would you recognize skin cancer? What is suspicious about the patient’s condition? What procedure would be performed? What advice could be given to help the patient stay healthy in her career?
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
Consult
Describe how you recognize skin cancer, using research data to support your response.
Explain what is suspicious about the patient’s condition, using research data to support your response.
Procedure: Explain what procedure should be performed, using research data to support your response.
Advice: Provide effective, supportive, and appropriate advice that could be given to the patient to help her stay healthy in her career. Be sure to support your response with research data.
What to Submit
Your submission should be about 1 page in length (not including references) and should use bullet points with relevant facts on each line. The document should be double spaced with 12-point Times New Roman font and one-inch margins. Citations should be formatted according to APA style.
