ANCC AGPCNP-BC key terms

The full interview record of chief complaint, present illness, past medical and surgical history, medications, allergies, family and social history, and review of systems that forms the foundation for diagnosis and care planning.

A structured series of questions organized by body system that uncovers symptoms the patient may not volunteer, helping the clinician move from the chief complaint to a complete clinical picture.

A mnemonic framework that characterizes pain by provocation and palliation, quality, region and radiation, severity, and timing, producing a reproducible description that guides diagnosis and treatment selection.

Blood pressure and pulse measured with the patient supine and again after standing one to three minutes; a fall of 20 mmHg systolic or 10 mmHg diastolic supports orthostatic hypotension and raises fall risk.

The ratio of ankle to brachial systolic pressure measured with a Doppler; values at or below 0.90 suggest peripheral arterial disease, while values above 1.40 suggest noncompressible vessels.

A brief scored cognitive screen covering orientation, registration, attention, recall, and language; serial scores help track change over time but results are influenced by education and language.

A ranked scale of independence in bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, continence, and feeding, used to describe functional status and to plan the level of support a patient needs.

The patient rises from a chair, walks three meters, turns, and returns to the chair; a time of 12 seconds or more signals elevated fall risk and prompts gait and balance evaluation.

A nine-item self-report that scores how often depressive symptoms occurred over the past two weeks and supports both case finding and tracking of treatment response over time.

Four yes-or-no questions about cutting down, annoyance at criticism, guilt, and morning eye-openers, used as a rapid screen for unhealthy alcohol use before a fuller assessment.

Tuning-fork maneuvers that compare air and bone conduction to classify hearing loss as conductive or sensorineural and to decide whether audiometry or specialty referral is warranted.

A prioritized list of plausible explanations for a patient's presentation, built from history, examination, and epidemiology, then narrowed through testing and response to treatment.

Features such as unexplained weight loss, night pain, focal neurologic deficit, or fever that raise concern for serious disease and require urgent evaluation rather than watchful waiting.

The proportion of people who have a disease and test positive for it; a highly sensitive test is most useful for ruling out disease when the result is negative.

The proportion of people who do not have a disease and test negative for it; a highly specific test is most useful for confirming disease when the result is positive.

The probability that a person with a positive test result truly has the disease; it rises as the prevalence of the disease in the tested population rises.

The number of patients who must receive an intervention for one additional person to benefit, calculated as the reciprocal of the absolute risk reduction; smaller values indicate greater benefit.

A letter grade from A through D, or I when evidence is insufficient, reflecting the strength of evidence and net benefit of a preventive service and guiding whether to offer it.

Screening tests are offered to asymptomatic people to detect hidden disease, whereas diagnostic tests confirm or exclude a specific condition in people who have symptoms or a positive screen.

A collaborative conversation in which the clinician presents options and evidence while the patient's values and preferences are weighed together to choose a course of care.

Objectives written to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound so that progress can be tracked objectively at follow-up rather than judged by impression alone.

A written, individualized plan stating problems, goals, interventions, responsible parties, and follow-up timing, developed with the patient and shared across the care team.

Ongoing discussion and documentation of a patient's values, goals, and preferences for future medical care, including health care proxy and code status, ideally completed before a crisis.

A directive, patient-centered counseling style using open questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries to strengthen a patient's own motivation and commitment to behavior change.

The clinician asks the patient to restate instructions in their own words, revealing misunderstandings so that education can be corrected before the patient leaves the encounter.

The degree to which a person can obtain, process, and understand health information needed to make decisions; limited literacy calls for plain language, visuals, and confirmation of understanding.

A published list of medications considered potentially inappropriate for older adults because of high risk of adverse effects, used to guide medication review and deprescribing decisions.

Concurrent use of multiple medications, often defined as five or more, which raises the risk of interactions, adverse events, and nonadherence and warrants periodic medication reconciliation.

The systematic, supervised reduction or withdrawal of medications that no longer provide benefit or that cause harm, done together with the patient and followed by monitoring for symptom recurrence.

Structured follow-up during the period after hospital discharge, including timely contact, medication reconciliation, and a visit, intended to reduce readmissions and gaps in care.

A formal comparison of a patient's current medication list against new prescriptions and records at every care transition to identify omissions, duplications, dosing errors, and interactions.

Sending a patient to another clinician for specialized expertise, accompanied by a clear clinical question, relevant records, and an agreed plan for who will manage care afterward.

Measuring serum concentrations of medications with narrow therapeutic ranges, then adjusting the dose to keep levels within the target window while watching for toxicity.

Routine use of validated scales at each visit to score symptoms and adjust treatment against predefined targets rather than relying on clinical impression alone.

Plan-Do-Study-Act: a small, rapid test of a practice change, followed by review of the results and refinement of the approach, used to improve quality within a clinical setting.

Standardized performance measures used by health plans to compare quality of care, such as rates of HbA1c testing or blood pressure control, which practices are expected to track.

Documenting and communicating a suspected harmful medication reaction to the prescribing clinician and, when required, to the national reporting program so future prescribing is informed.