Age-Specific Physical Assessment

1. Discuss the age specific physical assessment/s properly completed this week. State techniques you used in completing the physical assessment of your patient. Often these techniques will differ from an examination of an adult.

* B. was an 16 year old male. Prior to performing his physical assessment, I gathered information about Marfan syndrome and additional diagnoses such as scoliosis and heart murmur. First I introduced myself to B. and his parents ask them if he wanted his parents to stay in the room for the physical assessment. I explained the process of assessing him starting from his head to his feet and if he had any questions to feel free to ask. I was able to determine the main focus when assessing B. and the characteristics

In the males, muscle mass increases, they are prone to ligament tears, uncalcified bones until after puberty and the cardiovascular pump is not efficient as in adults. I think that B is not meeting the developmental norms because of his delayed motor skills from Marfan syndrome. Additional diagnosis of Marfan syndrome is scoliosis, making him unable to participate in sports due to the sideways curvature that affects his balance and coordination. B. was also diagnosed with a heart murmur that limited his ability to participate in sport activities when compared to other children his age.

5. State the highest priority nursing diagnosis for each of your patients from this week’s rotation and why you chose the diagnosis as the highest importance.

* The highest nursing diagnosis I chose was impaired comfort: acute pain related to tissue trauma and reflex muscles spasms secondary to surgery as evidence by the patient verbalizing pain level of 8 on a pain scale of 0- 10 with father’s help and showing facial grimaces of pain. B was postoperative 3 days from a thoracic spinal infusion of T2 to L3 and showed facial grimaces when lying in bed and sitting in the