Final answer:
Health care providers should inquire about all symptoms related to a patient's condition, including changes in bowel habits or stool, weight loss, and chest pain, alongside pain assessments like OPQRST mnemonic, as these can be indicative of serious diseases such as cancer.
Step-by-step explanation:
Besides the OPQRST mnemonic used to obtain information about a patient's pain, health care providers should also ask about symptoms that may be non-pain indicators of an underlying condition, like cancer.
These include changes in bowel habits or stool, significant weight loss, and chest pain. Patient B's symptoms of weight loss, profuse sweating, increased heart rate, and difficulty sleeping can be significant in diagnosis.
For example, weight loss and changes in bowel habits are early warning signs of cancers such as colorectal cancer, which may present with symptoms like constipation, diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, and rectal bleeding. Thus, the answer to the question is D. All of the above.
Additionally, the presence of one or more warning signs of cancer such as unusual bleeding or discharge, a thickening or lump in the breast, indigestion or difficulty in swallowing, obvious changes in a wart or mole, nagging cough or hoarseness, might prompt further investigation to rule out cancer.
Health care providers should always be attentive to such symptoms in conjunction with the patient's pain description.