The Teaching NP

10/13/2026

Starting out as a new NP can feel overwhelming, but remember, confidence comes with time and experience. Give yourself grace, stay curious, ask questions, and never stop learning. We all started somewhere! 🩺🤍

What advice would you give a new grad NP? 👇

10/10/2026

A systematic MSK exam makes all the difference! 🦴

Think: LOOK → FEEL → MOVE → STRENGTH → SPECIAL TESTS

And always assess how symptoms impact daily function!

Save this for your next clinical rotation! 📚

10/07/2026

CN III, IV, and VI can feel confusing… until you connect the eye movement to the nerve. 👀.

Here’s a review on extraocular movements and associated CN palsies.

Save this for clinical! 📌

10/02/2026

Building a differential diagnosis isn’t about memorizing a giant list of conditions.

It’s about learning how to think.

When a patient presents with a symptom, start by asking:

What systems could be involved?
What are the possible causes of this presentation?
What’s common?
What’s dangerous and can’t be missed?
What fits? What doesn’t fit with the history and exam?

From there, you can start narrowing your thinking into specific diagnoses.

A strong differential should include:

→ The most likely causes
→ Other reasonable possibilities
→ The serious diagnoses you need to rule out

And remember: your differential isn’t static.

Every question you ask, every physical exam finding, and every investigation should help you move diagnoses up or down your list.

That’s clinical reasoning.

Not memorizing every possible diagnosis, but understanding the patterns, considering the causes, and knowing what you absolutely cannot miss.

Save this for your next clinical rotation. 🩺

09/30/2026

SOAP notes can feel overwhelming when you’re first starting clinical, especially when you’re trying to figure out what actually belongs under S, O, A, and P.

The goal is not to document everything. The goal is to clearly show your clinical reasoning.

S — Subjective: What the patient tells you. Their symptoms, history, relevant ROS, and key negatives.

O — Objective: What you can observe, measure, examine, or verify: vital signs, physical exam findings, and relevant investigations.

A — Assessment: Your clinical impression. What do you think is going on? What diagnoses are you considering, and what findings support your thinking?

P — Plan: What are you doing about it? Investigations, treatment, medications, education, follow-up, referrals, and safety-netting.

I used a cough example in this reel to show you what this can actually look like when documented.

And yes, it is VERY hard to fit everything I want to teach about SOAP notes into a short reel 😅 There is so much more nuance to documentation, but this gives you a solid framework to start with.

A good SOAP note should allow the next clinician reading it to understand:

What happened? What did you find? What do you think is going on? And what are you doing about it?

Save this for your next clinical rotation. 🩺

09/28/2026

Red eye isn’t always benign.

Know the red flags that should make you stop, look closer, and think beyond simple conjunctivitis.

Save this one for clinic. 📌

09/26/2026

09/26/2026

Headaches are not always benign!

Learn the headache RED FLAGS you don’t want to miss! 🚩

09/23/2026

Cough is a symptom — not the diagnosis.

When a patient presents with a cough, start by narrowing the differential:

• Duration: acute, subacute, or chronic
• Pattern: dry vs productive, nighttime, exertional, positional
• Associated symptoms: fever, dyspnea, chest pain, hemoptysis
• History: asthma, COPD, reflux, allergic rhinitis, TB, immunosuppression
• Medications: especially ACE inhibitors
• Exposures: smoking, va**ng, occupational or environmental triggers

And always pay attention to the red flags because hemoptysis, hypoxia, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, persistent fever, or pleuritic chest pain can completely change how urgently you investigate.

The goal isn’t to memorize every cause of cough.

It’s to recognize the pattern and let the history narrow your differential.

Save this for your next clinical rotation. 🩺

09/21/2026

“Dizzy” is not a diagnosis.

When a patient says, “I’m dizzy,” your next questions matter.

Is it spinning? Lightheadedness? Imbalance? Near-syncope?

The way the patient describes the symptom can completely change your differential. From BPPV and vestibular neuritis to orthostatic hypotension, arrhythmia, medication effects, or a neurologic cause.

Use OLDCAARTS to systematically characterize the symptom, identify the pattern, and let the history guide your differential.

Save this for clinical. 🧠