Nursing Assessment

Running head: NURSING ASSESSMENT
Nursing assessment
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1NURSING ASSESSMENT
Description:
I had my clinical practical assessment in the clinical practice unit laboratories at Australian
Catholic University. It was on 3rd of April 2019. I along with my classmates were there to learn and
practice our different clinical assessments which included measuring vital signs like blood Pressure,
checking temperature, pulse Rate and respiration Rate. Our tutor demonstrated use the methods to
comprehensively assess vital signs following aseptic technique, which is hand washing before and
after touching every patient. Groups of two were formed to practice these skills and after
completing one task, our activities were swapped to expand our skills in assessment. I and my
partner got the activity of conducting clinical assessment related to measurement of blood Pressure.
I was the first to volunteer to measure blood pressure of my partner. As I started my assessment, I
forgot few things such as explaining patient what I am going to do and hand washing after touching
patient.
Feelings:
At first I was nervous and doubtful as if I will be able to perform correctly or not. Somewhere
I was stressed as well because it was my first experience of measuring blood pressure and I was little
confused with the normal and abnormal range of blood pressure. After I completed my clinical
assessment I felt quiet embarrassed, as well as frustrated because I forgot to explain the procedure
to my patient which is very important as effective communication helps to respect persons dignity,
cultures ,values, beliefs and rights(NMBA, 2016, P. 3). I also felt sad that I forgot small things like
handwashing after touching patient which is very important in health professional to prevent spread
of infections from one person to another. Every time as a nurse we need to ensure that all nursing
guidelines , standards, regulations and legislations to be carried out to prevent from cross infection
between patient and health care professional.
Evaluation:
In this clinical assessment I experienced a lot of things which was good as well as bad. My
good experienced was I learned how to measure blood pressure correctly. This assessment helped
me to increase my knowledge and skill levels in relation to conducting comprehensive nursing
assessment of patient as per NMBA registered nurse standards of practice (NMBA, 2016). The good
thing I did on this assessment is introducing myself to patient, hand washing before starting
procedure, preparing equipment’s which are sphygmomanometer and stethoscope used in this
procedure to measure blood pressure and lastly thanking patient for her time. The things which
didn’t go well was as I mentioned before was that I forgot to explain patient about the procedure
before starting the blood pressure assessment. Hence, I engaged in ineffective communication
process and this could affect patient’s right to privacy, dignity and cultural beliefs. The bad
experience I had was forgetting to carry aseptic techniques such as handwashing after touching
patient. Whenever we are dealing with patient or performing any assessment we need to follow safe
quality practice to achieve goals and outcomes based on needs of patient.
Analysis:
While reflecting on each component of my activity during blood pressure assessment, I can
say that not explaining the patient about the procedure was a limitation of my clinical assessment
activity. According to the ANSAT behavioural cues, I had the responsibility to engage in therapeutic