You Are on the Scene in the Bad Part of Town

question 37

Multiple Choice

You are on the scene in the bad part of town for an unresponsive 18-year-old type 1 diabetic patient.His mother states that he is very noncompliant with his diabetes management and goes unresponsive often due to low blood sugar.After performing the primary assessment,you believe that this is the most likely cause of his unresponsiveness.However,after taking a capillary glucose reading you are surprised to see that the patient's sugar level is normal.How will you now determine the field impression?

• A) Recognize that the mother was lying to you. The patient is not diabetic and you now must assume that everything she told you is wrong.
• B) You cannot make a correct diagnosis in the field because you cannot perform all the necessary tests with your limited scope of practice.
• C) Recognize that the mother is probably trying to protect her son from jail. Tell her that it is critical that she tell you what drugs he actually took.
• D) Continue patient care by getting a complete SAMPLE history and perform a complete secondary assessment.

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Definitions:

Halo Effect

The phenomenon where a positive impression in one area influences one's perception in other areas.

Primacy Effect

The tendency to remember information at the beginning of a list better than information in the middle or end.

Horn Effect

A cognitive bias causing negative traits or experiences with an individual to influence overall perception of them disproportionally.

Recency Effect

is the cognitive phenomenon where the most recently presented items or experiences are more likely to be remembered than those presented earlier.