Health Assessment

Question: What is Health Assessment? Answer: Introduction The purpose of this essay is to evaluate and discuss the importance of health assessment from nursing perspective. Health assessment can be considered as the essential tool in the diagnosis and management of diseases in patients. It provides the evidence based approach for the healthcare planning and implementation. Health assessments skills are also known as the most important skills of the nursing professionals. The more accurate is the health assessment, the better outcomes will be obtained. Most of the time patients are hospitalized in acute or severe condition, which require thorough health assessment, so that disease or physical health problem could be identified at the initial stage. Thus essay will discuss the importance of health assessment in relation to adults in hospitals and elderly people in aged care setting. Health assessment is considered as the plan of care, which related to identifying the specific healthcare needs of the patients (Shi, 2012). Health assessment is conducted by the skilled and professional nurses, who evaluate the patients condition by performing physical health assessment. When a patient is admitted to acute care settings or emergency services, the first and foremost concern of the nursing professionals is to ensure patients safety (Shi, 2012). Health assessment helps nurses to identify the problem and ensure that patient is safe. Safety of the patient can only be ensured by assessing the problem that can result in deteriorated condition of patient. Health assessment is the first stage of nursing care. At this stage data about the health status of the patient is collected (Shi, 2012). This data is further used for devising the healthcare plan. Important information and data is collected through various components of health assessment. Physical Health Assessment: Physical health assessment is conducted on the very first stage. Physical health is the most important part that will explain the overall well-being of the patient. It included noting the respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure, skin color, body position, temperature, bleeding, speech pattern and consciousness (Jarvis, 2012). Physical health assessment signifies observing the patient and identifying signs of clinical concerns. Patients Medical History: Next stage of health assessment is extracting the information about the past medical history of the patient. It will inform the nurse about past surgeries, chronic illness, ongoing physical problem. Medical history will help to understand the deteriorating condition of patient (Jarvis, 2012). Skin and Neurological Assessment: Skin assessment can be performed on the initial level and throughout the physical examination. Skin assessment is considered to be very important to identify the areas of vulnerability. Neurological assessment is important for identifying past history of any neurological disorder (Jarvis, 2012). Purpose of Health Assessment from Nursing Perspective Health assessment is the very important element of the nursing practice. Health assessment helps nurses to access the physical health condition of the patient and understanding the caring needs as well. Effective health assessment plays an important role in developing nursing care plans and also determines the effectiveness of nursing interventions. Nursing healthcare assessment is based on the nursing perspective, framework and outcomes (Atkinson, 2013). From the perspective of nurses, health assessment works as an efficient tool to determine the physical health condition as well as neurological health condition of a patient. The main emphasis of the assessment is to keep client in context and to apply best practice skills. From nursing perspective is considered as the most critical step, as the data obtained from the assessment and its accuracy will affect all the other phases and stages of nursing (Atkinson, 2013). The quality of the health assessment will impact the quality of care provided to the patient. It is also important for nurses, because it will ensure patients safety and avoid unintentional harms. The relevant data related to patient is collected through various components of assessment. The primary and secondary sources are also essential. For applying evidence based practice, health assessment is very vital from nursing perspective (Weber Kelley, 2013). Physical assessment is the major responsibility of the nurses for providing advanced and efficient clinical practice. Health assessment helps nurses to prepare a comprehensive and focused approach towards patients condition. Assessment also helps in identifying co-morbidities and abnormalities. From the nursing perspective, the purpose of health assessment is to achieve a conclusion about patients health condition. It provides a clinical judgment about patients health condition (Weber Kelley, 2013). Through assessment, nurses are able to implement the interventions for collaborative problems. Collaborative problems are physiological complications that nurse monitor to detect their onset and change in status (Weber Kelley, 2013). The main perspective of the nurses is to offer efficient, safe and quality care to the patient, which is only possible by effective health assessment. Nurse having poor nursing skills and lack of competency can pose serious complication for the patient. Ineffective health assessment and diagnosis can also result in poor outcomes (Kemppainen, Tossavainen, Turunen, 2013). The precision of the health assessment defines the effectiveness of the treatment and interventions. Thus, experience and multi-disciplinary knowledge is important for health assessment. The appropriate assessment also reduces health risks, risk of falls and mortality. Health Assessment of an Adult in a Hospital Health assessment for an adult in a hospital is very important and crucial. Health assessment will help in determining the physical condition and care needs of the adults. The health assessment of the adult will be conducted by monitoring of vital signs. The vital signs are mainly blood pressure, respiratory rate, temperature, heart rate and level of consciousness. Providing the nursing care to an adult in hospital will require nurses to develop patient satisfaction skills. Adult patients are competent to access their medical treatment information and can also discuss their treatment plan. The sense of rights and autonomy are higher in adult patients. In my opinion their health assessment will require informed consent and participation of patient (if patient is not in severe condition or unconscious). The assessment of patient will also require maintaining respect and dignity of patient. The health assessment and nursing services are required to be client oriented. Health Assessment of an Elderly Patient in Aged Care Facility The health assessment for the elderly patient in aged care setting would require certain skills and expertise. The primary assessment can be done according to the standard rules, but some specific difference would be there. According my opinion, health assessment of the elderly patient will be more focused towards determining the functional ability of the patient. With the heart rate, heart rhythm is also required to be determined. The patient assessment must include information about physical mobility, past medical history, ongoing medication, reaction or adverse effects of any medication, activity for daily life (ADL), falls history, surgery, social support or care giving support and also financial status. Health assessment for elderly people can also include information about being socially isolated, nutritional status and oral health. Conclusion Health assessment is the main element of quality nursing practice. It has been recognized all over the world, as it helps in early diagnosis of disease and physical complications of patients. The essay discussed the definition of health assessment and main purpose of health assessment in nursing practice. Essay also discussed the purpose of health assessment from the nursing perspective with the help of current and relevant literature. Essay provides the details about health assessment for adult patient in hospital and elderly patient in aged care setting, and discussed that how these assessments are done differently. References Atkinson, D. E. B. O. R. A. H. (2013). Nursing observation and assessment of patients in the acute medical unit (Doctoral dissertation, University of Salford). Department of Health. (2014). Health assessment for people aged 75 years and older. Retrieved From: https://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/mbsprimarycare_mbsitem_75andolder Jarvis, C. (2012). Physical examination and health assessment, (6th ed). St. Louis: W.B. Saunders. Kemppainen, V., Tossavainen, K., Turunen, H. (2013). Nurses' roles in health promotion practice: an integrative review. Health Promotion International, 28(4), 490-501. Shi, L. (2012). The impact of primary care: a focused review.Scientifica,2012. Weber, J. R., Kelley, J. H. (2013). Health assessment in nursing. Lippincott Williams Wilkins.