Head To Toe Assessment

Purpose

This week's graded topics relate to the following Course Outcomes (COs).

• CO 1 - Utilize prior knowledge of theories and principles of nursing and related disciplines to explain expected client behaviors, while differentiating between normal findings, variations, and abnormalities. (PO 1)
• CO 4 - Identify teaching/learning needs from the health history of an individual. (PO 2)

The Assignment

In Week 6 you demonstrated a head to toe assessment of an adult participant. This week you and your classmates will reflect on physical assessment in your own nursing practice, and on the assessment you performed for your video assignment. Please consider the following in your initial post:

1. Please share how physical assessment is performed in your practice area. How do you determine what type of physical assessment is appropriate in caring for your patients? Do you perform complete head to toe assessments, or are they typically more focused exams? (If you do not currently work in a patient care setting, you may reflect on observations from a clinical experience or prior work setting.)
2. Based on your observations, do you feel that patient assessments performed in practice are as thorough as they should be? Explain your answer.
3. Reflect on the assessment you performed for the video assignment. Perhaps you might compare your performance now, to how it might have been different when you were a brand new nurse? Or share something you learned (or were reminded of) by participating in this activity?