Comprehensive Nursing Assessment Paper

705 Words3 Pages
Comprehensive Physical Assessment in Critical Care Nursing Practice According to Lewis, Heitkemper, Ruff-Dirksen, Bucher, & Graber-O’Brien (2010), comprehensive physical assessment is the collection of information about the individual's health status that establishes baseline for future assessments (p. 97-99). Also, comprehensive physical assessment is a core element of caring nursing practice which allows to systematically assess oxygen supply and demand, provides a foundation for developing a management plan, promotes the critically ill patient's health and well-being as well as allows to provide individualized care (House-Kokan, 2010, p. 3-5). In this paper I will provide an example of critical care nursing practice and describe an interaction…show more content…
Nurse-client communication is one of the most important part of any nursing assessment. During an informal conversation a nurse understands clients better and reveals their stories; such an informal communication helps to humanize nursing care and allows to reveal more information which can be crucial for a further physical examination (House-Kokan, 2010). Additionally, House-Kokan (2010) notes that "knowing the person as a person allows the nurse ... to see patients as people with lives beyond the ICU [and] this knowledge is essential to everyday caring practice" (p.…show more content…
X. doesn't have any significant medical history in the past besides a toe finger he broke at the age of five years. He can't remember any other condition that impacts his level of functioning at this moment or any time in the past. Mr. X. does not experience any illness and generally perceives himself as a healthy person with normal level of activity for his age. Mr. X. maintains his health by running occasionally and by consuming mostly organic food. He does not have a family physician at the moment, however, he addressing all arising health issues by promptly visiting a walk-in clinic or an emergency department (ED) at Lions Gate Hospital. Mr. X. remembers that a physical assessment was performed on him several times at LGH ED and a walk-in clinical, but he can't say exactly which techniques doctors used and what exactly they checked; he says he just didn't follow their actions carefully. According to my perception, Mr. X. is a person in good health condition and with a minimal experience of healthcare system. He doesn't have any medical background and, according to his own words, he wasn't good in biology at school. Thus, his knowledge about human anatomy, pharmacology and medical interventions is greatly limited. Mr. X. believes that he needs to eat 'good food' and to be active in order to stay healthy. General Observations and Vital

More about Comprehensive Nursing Assessment Paper

Open Document