HEALTH ASSESSMENT PRELIMES

• Open-ended questions allow the interviewee to provide a comprehensive response without predetermined options.
• Nursing is the promotion, optimization, and maintenance of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering, and health restoration through the diagnosis and treatment of human responses and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, and communities.
• The nurse continuously collects data systematically, involving patients, their relatives, the healthcare team in providing the data, prioritizes data collection activities, and makes use of instruments and assessment tools.
• The data collected becomes the basis for identifying a problem or a need, and nursing interventions are appropriated according to the need of the patient.
• In the late 1800s to early 1900s, nurses relied on their senses to detect the clients' conditions like changes in the body temperature, and other signs visible to the eyes and felt by the hands.
• Palpation is limited to locating the fundus of the pregnant mother or taking the pulse rate.
• The most important role of a nurse is to assist patients and their families with receiving information necessary for maintaining a patient’s optimal health.
• The eyes are used to detect discoloration of the skin, mucous membrane of the eyes, signs of cuts and bruises, redness and swelling, urine output amount and character etc.
• Nurses must be able to think critically and make decisions when problems are not clear.
• A nurse applies therapeutic modalities like pharmacologic and nutritional interventions.
• Psychomotor skills are best learned through practice after achieving an understanding of the basic principles of skills as part of the nursing education.
• Communication in nursing is the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information which is vital to the nursing process.
• These characteristics involve behaviours with regard to self, patient, others, and the public as they reflect the values of the nursing profession.
• The code of ethics for nurses provides the ideal framework for safe and correct practices and behaviour.
• Professionalism involves the characteristics of a nurse that reflects his or her professional status.
• A nurse must question, wonder, and be able to explore various perspective and possibilities in order to give patients the best care.
• The hands are used to detect body temperature.
• The nose is used to detect body odor, urine odor.
• The ears are used to detect heart beat, air in the lungs.
• Signs are objective data obtained by general observation, making use of the four physical examination techniques (IPPA), and can be validated by the patient himself.
• Nursing diagnosis is a specific result of analyzing and is the problem statement that nurses use to communicate to the healthcare team.
• Nursing diagnosis makes use of PES or PRS format, with PES (problem/ etiology/signs & symptoms) and PRS (problem/ related factors/ signs & symptoms).
• In the 1930s to 1949, nursing practice was significant for case finding and prevention of communicable diseases.
• In PES format, the nurse adds etiology and signs and symptoms to the problem.
• At-risk nursing diagnosis is also known as At-risk Nsg.
• Subjective data are sensations, perceptions, feelings, desires, preferences, beliefs, ideas, values, personal information, and can be validated by the patient himself.
• Documenting data is vital in assessment and forms the database of all that are involved in the patient care.
• Objective data can also be obtained from medical records, observations made by family and significant others, and observations made by the examiner.
• In PRS format, the nurse replaces aetiology with the words “related to”.
• Types of data pain include sensations, symptoms, dizziness, anxiety, weakness, thirst, nervousness, fatigue, and nausea.
• Validating assessment data involves ensuring that the information collected are relevant and validated.
• In the 1950s to 1969, nurses were hired and worked in offices, doing pre-employment health assessment and physical examinations.
• The Nursing Process consists of four steps: Assessment, Nursing Diagnosis, Nursing Interventions, and Nursing Evaluation.
• The Nursing Process provides a framework, is cost-efficient, promotes professionalism and collaboration, improves efficiency & timeliness of care.
• Nursing Diagnosis is followed by Nursing Interventions, where the nurse plans and implements interventions to address the patient's health problems.
• The purpose of the assessment phase is to establish a database.
• Nursing Evaluation is the last step of the Nursing Process, where the nurse evaluates the effectiveness of the interventions and determines if further interventions are needed.
• Nurses document all assessment results and interventions provided, portraying more independent roles.
• Nursing Process is a systemic approach used by the nurse to allow her to provide the best nursing care she could.
• Roles of nurses became more advanced and crucial, with nurses having to do intensive assessments, diagnosing and referrals.