Roles of Nurses in Health AssessmentPosted by emerjoytvale on August 13th, 2010 ROLEs OF NURSES
IN HEALTH ASSESSMENT Health assessment is a very crucial
step in the health examination. Assessment is to gather information about
a patient's physiological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual status. As a nurse, we should be
careful in taking the nursing history of the patient, either in a comprehensive
or in general patterns as the situation calls. After that, a thorough physical
assessment must be done in an orderly manner. Then, the nurse prepares the
patient for the diagnostic examination. Above all, we must not forget the
hallmark of the nursing accountability, PROPER DOCUMENTATION. We must record
all the data, either subjective or objective accurately, completely and
realistically. Health assessments are performed by
nurses in a variety of settings, including at health areas, in the community,
and at schools and everywhere. It involves interviewing a patient, inspecting
and observing her body and actions, palpating and percussing parts of her body
and even auscultating sounds. Different roles of nurses can be seen in the
following. Data
Health assessments are used by nurses to gather
information about a patient's condition. These data are used to formulate a nursing
care plan for the patient. Accurate assessment means a correct diagnosis. Nursing
Diagnosis
A nurse takes note of actual or potential problems her
patient may have during a health assessment. From the list of subjective and
objective data, she formulates nursing analysis/ diagnosis, which she uses to
create a care plan and give proper intervention (independent, dependent or
collaborative). Problem
management
The nurse continuously does a health assessment on her
patient to see if her interventions are effective. If not, she makes
adjustments to her NCP to address the patient's malfunctions or infirmities. Evaluation
Evaluation of a patient's condition is done through
health assessments. Evaluations determine if a patient has responded to nursing
care sufficiently enough to be recommended for discharge. Criteria
for discharge
During a health assessment, a nurse may become aware that
a patient is lacking information that may help improve his condition. This
provides the nurse with an opportunity to impart this information before he/she
is discharged. Collaboration
and Advocacy
When a nurse performs a health assessment, she may find a
problem that requires the expertise of other members of the health care team.
In this case, the nurse notifies the proper health care team member of the
problem and makes sure the patient receives the expert care that they need.
Here, she becomes an advocate for her patient. Like it? Share it!More by this author |