University Health Assessment Essay: 1810NRS, Trimester 2, 2019

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of health assessment in nursing, beginning with definitions of "health" and "assessment" and their application in a nursing context. It emphasizes the importance of health assessment in planning and delivering holistic care, providing an example of how nurses integrate this approach. The essay then explores the purpose of health assessment from a nursing perspective, highlighting its role in identifying patient needs and implementing preventative measures. Two case scenarios, involving a 76-year-old man and a 54-year-old Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander man, are presented to illustrate the practical application of health assessment, including the specific assessments, rationales, and considerations for documentation and therapeutic relationships. The essay concludes by reiterating the significance of health assessments in improving patient outcomes, particularly when tailored to individual patient characteristics such as culture, developmental stage, and life stage. References to relevant literature are included to support the discussed concepts.

Running head: HEALTH ASSESSMENT
HEALTH ASSESSMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction:
According to Hunter and Arthur (2016), health assessment can be defined as the
specific set of patient care that helps to identify the patient needs and adapt care interventions
by virtue of which the overall care outcome for the patient can be improved. The specific care
needs of the patient are assessed by General Physician and the nursing care professionals
within a skilled nursing facility or a typical healthcare setting (Yazdani, Hosseinzadeh &
Hosseini, 2017). The process of an overall health assessment is recommended every six
months for a healthier life outcome. In addition to this, it should also be noted that the
procedure of health assessment includes conducting a physical exam after through
consideration of the medical history and ordering a few clinical tests depending on the level
of physical status. The evidence base does not recommend routine physical health
assessments in otherwise healthy individuals (Yazdani, Hosseinzadeh & Hosseini, 2017).
Section A:
According to the definition propounded by the World Health Organization (2015),
health and wellbeing has been defined as the complete state of physical and mental fitness
and not merely the absence of an infirmity. The literal meaning of health refers to the absence
of an illness, disorder or an injury. On the other hand, the literal meaning of assessment is
referred to as the action of assessing the quality of physical or mental health of an individual.
Physical health assessment helps to analyse the quality of physical fitness and accordingly
prioritise care needs so as to ensure improved patient health outcome.
It should be noted in this regard that conducting a health assessment is considered the
first aspect of accurately identifying the patient’s care needs. The appropriate medical needs
of the patients is identified with the help of physical examination and a set of basic chemical
investigations and based on the same a treatment intervention can be planned. Regular or

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routine health assessments help to identify the initial symptoms of disorders that might
impact the quality of life of the patients (Barker, Linsley & Trueman, 2016).
It should further be noted in this regard that the devised treatment plan is based on the
critical consideration of the holistic care needs of the patient (Giger, 2016). For example,
while treating a patient suffering from chronic health disorder, the nursing care professional
would conduct a holistic health assessment that would ideally include a head to toe body
assessment based on the previous medical history, a mental state evaluation, a nutritional
assessment and a spiritual assessment so as to devise a care plan that is aligned to the care
needs and individual preferences of the patient. However, it is integral to note in this context
that the assessments vary on the basis of the patient problems.
Section B:
The purpose of health assessment is to effectively identify the initial symptoms of
disorders that have not yet manifested entirely in the patients. The assessment helps to
implement precautionary measures that can help to control the risk factors that trigger the
symptoms of the disorder (Barker, Linsley & Trueman, 2017). It should further be noted in
this regard, that routine health assessment equip nursing professionals to assess the health
condition of the patient and accordingly prioritise health care needs of the patient. In addition
to this, nursing care professionals can appropriately make use of the clinical reasoning cycle
to assess the patients, collect cues and engage in the critical decision making process to plan
the care intervention process (Shen, 2015). The use of the clinical reasoning cycle also
enables care professionals to actively engage the patients in the care process and make use of
the evidence base to devise an effective care plan that is aligned to the healthcare needs of the
patient and is also coherent with the NSQHS standards of care process (Potter et al., 2016).

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Section C:
The two chosen case scenarios that have been chosen for discussion in this section
include the case study of Mr. A and Mr. C. As informed by the provided information, Mr. A
is a 76 year old man who is a resident of an aged care facility. The patient is visited by his
daughter weekly and his annual health review suggests problems such as hearing impairment,
osteoporosis and constipation. The health assessments for Mr. A would include a head to toe
assessment, ABCDE assessment, skin assessment, nutrition assessment, MSE evaluation and
fall risk patient. In addition to this, the patient would also be referred for a BMD testing and a
Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. The supporting rationale for conducting head to toe
assessment and ABCDE assessment can be explained as assessing the quality of
physiological functioning of the body (Douglas et al., 2016). The rationale for conducting
skin assessment can be explained as evaluating the probability of acquiring pressure ulcers
with advancing age (Douglas et al., 2016). Further, the nutrition assessment would be
conducted to estimate the quality of nutritional intake of the patient (Potter et al., 2016). The
MSE evaluation would be conducted to assess the psychological health of the patient
pertaining to the fact that the patient is a senior adult and stays within a residential care
facility where his daughter visits him weekly and rationale for referral BMD testing and Dual
energy X-ray absorptiometry can be explained as evaluating the current stage of osteoporosis
so as to devise an appropriate care plan (Potter et al., 2016). The four aspects that would be
taken into consideration by the nurse while documenting patient history and conducting a
physical health assessment so as to develop a positive therapeutic relationship would include,
considering the age-specific consideration with respect to the patient’s advanced age, the
quality of the clinical setting with respect to the comfort level of the patient and the culture
specific considerations to devise an appropriate care plan (Douglas et al., 2016).

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The second patient, Mr. C, who is 54 year old, has been mentioned to be from the
Aboriginal and Torres Islander cultural background. The patient is accompanied with his wife
and is at the hospital with a nurse preparing him for his bowel operation. The assessments
that would be conducted on the patient would include, vital sign assessment, cultural
assessment and the nutritional assessment (Munroe et al., 2015). The four aspects that would
be considered while conducting the assessment with regard to documenting medical history
and conducting physical assessment would include considering the culture specific
preferences of the patient (Douglas et al., 2016). This would be done by making referral to an
aboriginal RN (Giger, 2016). In addition to this, use of effective non-verbal gestures,
maintenance of a calm clinical environment and specific consideration of the developmental
stage can help to acquire improved patient outcome (Shen, 2015).
Conclusion:
Therefore, to conclude, it can be stated that health assessments help to improve the
overall health outcome of the patients which help to alleviate the satisfaction level of the
patients. However, assessments based on patient specific considerations such as culture,
development and life stage specific considerations can help to acquire improved health
outcome.

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References:
Barker, J., Linsley, P., & Trueman, I. (2016). Clinical judgement and decision making. Evid
Based Pract Nurses Healthc Professionals, 45.
Douglas, C., Booker, C., Fox, R., Windsor, C., Osborne, S., & Gardner, G. (2016). Nursing
physical assessment for patient safety in general wards: reaching consensus on core
skills. Journal of clinical nursing, 25(13-14), 1890-1900.
Giger, J. N. (2016). Transcultural Nursing-E-Book: Assessment and Intervention. Elsevier
Health Sciences.P.70
Hunter, S., & Arthur, C. (2016). Clinical reasoning of nursing students on clinical placement:
Clinical educators' perceptions. Nurse education in practice, 18, 73-79.
Munroe, B., Curtis, K., Murphy, M., Strachan, L., & Buckley, T. (2015). HIRAID: An
evidence-informed emergency nursing assessment framework. Australasian
Emergency Nursing Journal, 18(2), 83-97.
Potter, P. A., Perry, A. G., Stockert, P., & Hall, A. (2016). Fundamentals of Nursing-E-Book.
Elsevier Health Sciences.P.88
Shen, Z. (2015). Cultural competence models and cultural competence assessment
instruments in nursing: a literature review. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 26(3),
308-321.
Yazdani, S., Hosseinzadeh, M., & Hosseini, F. (2017). Models of clinical reasoning with a
focus on general practice: a critical review. Journal of Advances in Medical
Education & Professionalism, 5(4), 177.

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World Health Organization. (2015). WHO global strategy on people-centred and integrated
health services: interim report (No. WHO/HIS/SDS/2015.6). World Health
Organization.