NU333: Collecting Measurement Data
Collecting Measurement Data
Penny Isham
NU333
Gina Zuniga
10-26-2014
When doing your assessment of a patient, regardless if it is an admission, surgical, emergency visit or just routine visit, you need a method, pattern to ensure completion. I am going to focus on the admission assessment. When a patient comes to the hospital, the initial assessment will plan the care. “The physical examination requires you to develop technical skills and a knowledge base.” (Jarvis, 2012) When doing your assessment the first to do is to make sure there is no imminent danger, if so address that first. Then do a systemic assessment. I start and do head to toe. It is important to do a complete past medical history and know any chronic conditions,
as they may still play an active part in the health for this stay. The initial assessment is completed once, so if you miss anything the rest of the care team does not have the information needed and it may delay or have a negative effect on care. Take the time on admission to gain all information to share in the chart and in report. Use all of your skills, and senses. An isolated height and weight is reading has very little meaning because there is room for error. If there is a difference and a substantial difference, all other readings will support there is a concern, Do not base treatment on one reading. During our readings, there were many expanded thoughts on how I practice. I have been out of school for many years, so the refresher was great. The ah-ha for me was in reading palpation and why you use certain parts of your body; “ the dorsa (back) of hands and fingers- best for determining temperature because the skin is thinner than on the palms:. (Jarvis 2012) This made me think of taking my kinds temperature with the back of my forearm, Now before this reading if you ask me why I used my forearm I would have said, because that’s how my mom did it; now I know the real reason.
References
Jarvis, C. (2012). Physical examination & health assessment (6th ed.). St Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Saunders
Penny Isham
NU333
Gina Zuniga
10-26-2014
When doing your assessment of a patient, regardless if it is an admission, surgical, emergency visit or just routine visit, you need a method, pattern to ensure completion. I am going to focus on the admission assessment. When a patient comes to the hospital, the initial assessment will plan the care. “The physical examination requires you to develop technical skills and a knowledge base.” (Jarvis, 2012) When doing your assessment the first to do is to make sure there is no imminent danger, if so address that first. Then do a systemic assessment. I start and do head to toe. It is important to do a complete past medical history and know any chronic conditions,
as they may still play an active part in the health for this stay. The initial assessment is completed once, so if you miss anything the rest of the care team does not have the information needed and it may delay or have a negative effect on care. Take the time on admission to gain all information to share in the chart and in report. Use all of your skills, and senses. An isolated height and weight is reading has very little meaning because there is room for error. If there is a difference and a substantial difference, all other readings will support there is a concern, Do not base treatment on one reading. During our readings, there were many expanded thoughts on how I practice. I have been out of school for many years, so the refresher was great. The ah-ha for me was in reading palpation and why you use certain parts of your body; “ the dorsa (back) of hands and fingers- best for determining temperature because the skin is thinner than on the palms:. (Jarvis 2012) This made me think of taking my kinds temperature with the back of my forearm, Now before this reading if you ask me why I used my forearm I would have said, because that’s how my mom did it; now I know the real reason.
References
Jarvis, C. (2012). Physical examination & health assessment (6th ed.). St Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Saunders