Assignment on Nursing - Health assessment

Nursing
Student’s name:
Institutional:

Health assessment is a very important role is nursing and it provide the basis of a quality
nursing care (Potter et.al, 2016). As a nurse, one should perform a proper health assessment for a
client. This is to ensure that the client’s needs and clinical problems are well captured. It also
aids the nurse in formulating proper nursing diagnosing and evaluation of the client’s responses
to health needs and intervention. However, in order to perform a comprehensive and accurate
health assessment, the nurse should first establish a rapport with the patient (American Diabetes
Association, 2019). Building a rapport means establishing a connection or understanding with
someone. This thus helps a nurse to relate with the patients in a way that increases the level of
trust. The patients get to feel comfortable and more open hence revealing their health problems
without fear. This text will therefore discuss ways in which rapport can be established and
maintained and further discuss the health assessment of an adult client.
A case study of James a 53-year-old man with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) will be used for
this discussion. First, in order to establish a rapport with James I ensured that the physical set up
of the place was suitable. The set-up should allow for privacy and be comfortable for both of us.
The location had to be in a place where privacy was maintained, for example, where other staffs
could not easily disrupt us during the assessment. The health assessment was conducted at an
appropriate time to allow for full attention. The time that was most suitable for both me and
James. For example, doing the assessment when James want to sleep may be inappropriate.
James will most likely answer questions hastily so as to catch up with sleep. Most importantly, I
presented myself in a manner that was appealing to the client. I also ensured that I spoke in a
manner that was friendly and used friendly terms in my communication. This was to ensure that
James felt safe and secure being with me, which made the connection closer.