Assessment Foundations

Triage before you touch, then treatment

This lesson includes the red flag quick screen. Refer on any red flag: progressive weakness, saddle numbness, bowel or bladder change, fever, unexplained weight loss, cancer history with new pain, major trauma, new severe headache, facial or speech change, chest pain, or new severe abdominal pain.

These are reasoning forms, not diagnosis forms. They help you decide whether to treat, modify, test further or refer. A positive test is not a diagnosis. It is a reason to choose a safer next input and retest.

Sort each presentation into a likely pattern. Local tissue dominant, joint or load dominant, neurodynamic dominant, high sensitivity dominant, or referral pattern. The pattern points you to a safe first input and an honest retest, and keeps you from treating everything the same way.