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Common errors in the statement of the present illness
Author(s) -
BENBASSAT J.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
medical education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.776
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1365-2923
pISSN - 0308-0110
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2923.1984.tb01296.x
Subject(s) - statement (logic) , medical diagnosis , presentation (obstetrics) , disease , medicine , medical history , identification (biology) , family medicine , psychology , pathology , surgery , linguistics , botany , biology , philosophy
Summary A review of 110 case histories recorded by medical students revealed four common types of errors in the presentation of the statement of the present illness:1 overemphasis on previous findings and diagnoses to the exclusion of the patient's symptoms; 2 inappropriate description of the patient's complaints; 3 failure to discriminate between main symptoms and symptoms of secondary importance; and 4 failure to describe clearly the progression of the disease and the degree of resulting disability. The main difficulty students appeared to have in recording a case history was in the identification and description of the patient's complaints.