introduction to health assessment

1. INTRODUCTION OF HEALTH ASSESSMENT

6. Health Assessment
Definition:
Health assessment is an organized systematic assessment of
human body which involves the use of one senses to
determine the general physical and mental conditions of the
body by collecting both subjective and objective data.

12. FOUR TYPES OF ASSESSMENT FOR NURSING
In order to effectively determine a diagnosis and treatment for a patient,
nurses make four assessments
• Initial
• Focused
• Time-lapsed
• Emergency
One of the most important parts of nursing education, as well as the health
care industry overall, is the group of routine procedures and processes
involved with patient assessment and care.
As a result, nurses and other health care professionals are able to quickly
assess and determine the best treatment for an ailing patient.
I

13. Initial Assessment
• The initial assessment, also known as triage, helps to determine the nature of
the problem and prepares the way for the ensuing assessment stages.
• The initial assessment is going to be much more thorough than the other
assessments used by nurses.
• Components may include obtaining a patient's medical history or putting him
through a physical exam, or preparing a psychosocial assessment for a mental
health patient.
• Other components may include obtaining a patient's vital signs and taking
subjective statements from the patient, as well as double-checking the
subjective symptoms with the objective signs of the condition.t

14. Focused Assessment
• The focused assessment is the stage in which the problem is exposed and treated.
•
• Due to the importance of vital signs and their ever-changing nature, they are continuously
monitored during all parts of the assessment.
• Depending on the malady, initial treatment for pain and long-term treatment for the root
cause of the malady is administered and monitored.
• Part of the goal of the focused assessment is to diagnose and treat the patient in order to
stabilize her condition.
• Focused assessments may also include X-rays or other types of tests.

15. Time-Lapsed Assessment
• Once treatment has been implemented, a time-lapsed assessment must be conducted to
ensure that the patient is recovering from his malady and his condition has stabilized.
• Depending on the nature of the malady, the time-lapsed assessment may span the length of
one or two hours or a couple of months.
• During the time-lapsed assessment, the current status of the patient is compared to the
previous baseline during and prior to treatment.
• Similar to the focused assessment, the time-lapsed assessment may also include lab work,
X-rays or other diagnostic medical testing.

16. Emergency Assessments
• During emergency procedures, a nurse is focused on rapidly identifying the
root causes of concern for the patient and assessing the airway, breathing and
circulation (ABCs) of the patient.
• Once the ABCs are stabilized, the emergency assessment may turn into an
initial or focused assessment, depending on the situation. If the nurse is not in
a health care setting, emergency assessments must also include an assessment
for scene safety so that no other individuals, including the nurse himself, are
hurt during the rescue and emergency response process.