Health Assessment : The Foundation Of Nursing Essay

By carrying out an assessment nurses can identify the causes of problems that require medical involvement. Nettina (2006)

The assessment process is the back bone to any package of care and it is vital that it is personal and appropriate to the individual concerned. Although studies have found that there is no singular theory or understanding as to what the purpose of assessment is, there are different approaches and forms of assessment carried out in health and social care. These different approaches can sometimes result in different outcomes.

“If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed-sore, it is generally the fault of not of the disease, but of the nursing. I use the word nursing for want of a better” (Nightingale, 1860, p. 8). While Nightingale stressed the impact of one’s environment to promote healing, Virginia Henderson aimed to establish on the fundamental needs as a knowledge base to guide Professional nursing practice. Henderson emphasized on fourteen components required for effective nursing care which includes: breathing normally, eating and drinking adequately, elimination of body wastes, movement and posturing, sleep and rest, select suitable clothes-dress and undress, maintaining body temperature, keeping body clean and well groomed, avoiding dangers in the environment, communication, worship according to one’s faith, work accomplishments, play or participate in various forms of recreation, and learn, discover, or satisfy the curiosity (Fernandes et al., 2015). Her division of the fourteen components acknowledged patient needs with a holistic approach that is applied through the nursing process in a clinical setting.

Nursing process is a systematic process that involves a continuous cycle of five interrelated phases: holistic assessment of a client, nursing diagnoses, nursing care planning, implementation, and evaluation (Wilkinson et al. 2015). It enables nurses to assess the person’s health status and health care needs, to create plans to meet the identified needs, and to provide and evaluate individualised nursing interventions according to the person’s needs (Luxford 2015). The holistic assessment is the first step of the nursing process that includes the collection of subjective and objective data related to the physical, psychological, social, developmental, cultural, and spiritual status of a client (Wilkinson et al. 2015). This comprehensive approach to nursing assessment is essential because it allows nurses to comprehend not only clients’ health status, but also their routines and needs in order to incorporate their life-styles into the care interventions (Luxford 2015). It ultimately enables nurses to provide appropriate quality person-centred care rather than nurse-initiated care (Luxford 2015). Responsibility for holistic nursing assessment is supported by the Registered nurse standards for practice (2016), ‘Standard 4.1: The registered nurse conducts assessments that are holistic as well as culturally appropriate’ (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia [NMBA] 2016, p. 4). This essay will discuss the elements and the importance of holistic assessment in nursing.

I am currently studying HNC Health Care and as part of my course I have to complete a graded unit, this will entail three stages; Planning, development and evaluation. This will be carried out while on placement within a hospital setting, within the planning stage I have to choose a patient and assist them with a nursing activity. I have chosen to follow Roper Logan and Tierney twelve activities of daily living the reason for this is that I find it to be the nursing model that is most effective as each activity has its own importance to the survival of life; also it follows the objectives of my graded unit. I have chosen the AL of eating and drinking as the patient I have chosen has severe Rheumatoid arthritis and has lost the use of her

Comprehensive assessments is the most valuable piece which allows Nurse Practitioners to know about the health risks, strengths and needs of their patients. Furthermore, the comprehensive assessment strengths the relationship between the Nurse Practitioners and their patients. From clinician-patients relationship, it helps a complete assessment to answer patients questions which in the long run help to achieve measurable goals and provide quality outcomes to the patients. Nurse Practitioners use comprehensive assessment approach to analyze, interpret, implement and follow up care to ensure their patients receive appropriate care and prevent inappropriate diagnosis. Comprehensive assessment is where the patients are encourage to

This piece of work will be based on the pre-assessment process that patients go through on arrival to an endoscopy unit in which I was placed in during my second year studying Adult diploma Nursing. I will explore one patient’s holistic needs, identifying the priorities of care that the patient requires; I will then highlight a particular priority and give a rational behind this. During an admission I completed under the supervision of my mentor I was pre-assessing a 37 year old lady who had arrived to the unit for an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. During the pre-assessment it was important that a holistic assessment is performed as every patient is an individual with unique care needs as the patient outline in this piece of work has

A family health assessment is a process by which a nurse evaluates and describes the health status of a given family. It is a framework that helps to identify areas of potential risk for illness, opportunities for health education and actions needed to address these (World Health Organization, 2001). Specifics covered in a nurse led family assessment will include family history, perceptions about health, reports, health records, and any clinic test results. The nurse conducts an interview, compiles data and performs an appropriate

Many elderly and their family cannot determine what are normal aging and what are not; therefore, educating them is the key role for nurses to promote safety and health for older adults. Not only assessing physical changes but also mental health assessment is important because those age-related physical changes may cause depression in older adults, which leads to other problems like “difficulty with sleeping,

In this Assessment nursing course, one of the major things that is taught is the most important part of giving proper care to a patient. Correct patient assessment is needed before any nursing care plan or treatment can be implemented. This post-review of a person’s assessment will demonstrate the proper way to go about assessing a person’s health.

Assessment in the nursing process will establish the patients' ongoing needs and provide a quality of care best suited to the individual, to achieve a desirable health outcome.

As you learned in NR302, before any nursing plan of care or intervention can be implemented or evaluated, the nurse conducts an assessment, collecting subjective and objective data from an individual. The data collected are used to determine areas of need or problems to be addressed by the nursing care plan. This assignment will focus on collecting both subjective and objective data, synthesizing the data, and identifying health and wellness priorities for the person. The purpose of the assignment is twofold.

The aim of this essay is to demonstrate the assessment process of a patient using the Roper Logan and Tierney (RLT) model of nursing framework and to show how the nursing process works alongside this model. This will be shown by a holistic history of the patient being shown, followed by how the RLT model is applicable to this patient. This is then followed by one nursing intervention being discussed showing how the nursing process is applied to patient care. The patient will be referred to as Mr Frederick Valentine to protect the patient’s anonymity as stated in the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct (2008) guidelines.

The general condition of the homes in Rockport is diverse. Many of the homes are multi-million dollar structures while others are dilapidated and in need of serious repair. People seen in the downtown area are walking but away from that area, most people are travelling in cars. Some people are travelling on bicycles or golf carts in designated areas. Three areas of public housing are noted but there are no visible signs of public transportation. Numerous campaign signs are visible throughout the entire community. One adult day care and two child day centers are noted during the survey. Two grade schools, one middle school, two private church schools, and one high school are seen during the survey.

Lily was a 65 year old lady with stage 5 CKD, she had recently begun hemodialysis treatment three times a week as an inpatient and had been responding well to treatment. During dialysis treatment on the morning of the first day, Lily’s observations showed that she was: tachycardic, hypotensive, tachypnoeaic, had an oxygen saturation level of 88% and was becoming confused and drowsy. It became apparent that Lily had become hypovolaemic. The hypovolaemic shock seen in this patient was of a particular critical nature due to the fact that her dialysis treatment had moved her rapidly through the first two stages of shock with her compensatory mechanisms failing very quickly (Tait, 2012). It was also much harder to identify the early signs of