Diagnosing and Managing Shoulder Pain
Jul 13, 2021
When you’re working as a primary care nurse practitioner, you are going to see —i.e. diagnosing and managing — a lot of shoulder pain.
Like, a lot of it. Musculoskeletal issues are one of the most common chief complaints in primary care, after all.
A patient might be dealing with a torn rotator cuff or adhesive capsulitis. Or maybe subacromial impingement syndrome. Or even thoracic outlet syndrome. (Zebra alert!)
As a new nurse practitioner, I used to find shoulder pain pretty overwhelming. While you can *see* all the musculoskeletal structures and how they work together, there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface and dealing with orthopedics can require a real depth of knowledge.
But I’m going to help give you a jump start on that!
Diagnosing and Managing Shoulder Pain in Primary Care
In this week’s video, I’m taking a high-level view of diagnosing and managing shoulder pain for new nurse practitioners. We’ll talk about:
- Which history questions are most valuable to ask
- Why traumatic vs. non-traumatic presentation differentiates treatment
- The four steps to treatment used to treat *most* musculoskeletal issues in primary care (and why you might to reconsider them)
- And one clinical pearl that blew my mind when I learned it!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
If you liked this post, also check out:
- Diagnostic Approach To Back Pain
- Diagnosing Wrist Pain For New Nurse Practitioners
- Interview With An Orthopedic Nurse Practitioner
Accessibility Matters: Read The Full Transcript Here
