How to Perform a Full Physical Exam

This is the appropriate and thorough way to perform a physical exam on a patient.

N.B Visit www.campusflava.com for latest updates 

Steps

    1
    Wash your hands before the examination
    2
    Take the patient's blood pressure
    3
    Take the radial pulse for 15 seconds if the pulse is normal. Take it for 30-60 seconds if the pulse is high or slow
    4
    Check the patient's ears
    5
    Do the hearing test. Use simple words and whisper them
    6
    Give them the Snell test
    7
    Test their eye reaction with a flashlight
    8
    Get the patient to follow your fingers with their eyes
    9
    Check the nose and throat
    10
    Check the neck. Get them to flex, extend, rotate, and bend the neck
    11
    Check the thyroid gland
    12
    Check the cranial nerves. Ask them to raise their eyebrows, frown, close their eyes tightly, show their teeth, smile, and puff out their cheeks
    13
    Check the lymph nodes
    14
    Do the lung exam. Do 3 spots on the back of each lung and 1 on the front of each lung
    15
    Now listen to the heart. After, move on to the carotids with the bell of the stethoscope
    16
    Proceed to the abdominal exam. Listen for bowel sounds in all 4 quadrants. Listen for an aortic bruit
    17
    Palpate the four quadrants, liver, and spleen. Measure the vertical span of liver with a ruler
    18
    Look at the patient's spine. Get them to bend forward and touch the toes

Tips

    If the weather is cold, warm up the diaphragm or bell before you put on the skin. If you put a cold stethoscope on someone's chest, back or abdomen in cold weather, the first thing you will hear is a scream coming from his or her mouth.
    When listening the the patient's heart, lungs, arteries or intestines, always hold the stethoscope against the bare skin of the chest, back or abdomen. If you hold it over their clothes, you might pick up the sound of the rustling fabric as well as the sounds of the heart, lungs, arteries or intestines.