The Importance Of Health Assessment

HEALTH INTERVIEW WRITE-UP

“Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life.” (Rumbold.G,1999,pg 1). Nurses may be differentiated from other health care providers by their approach to patient care, training and scope of practice. Thus, this essay discusses health assessment interview of a client.

To begin with, “ Assessment is the first stage of the nursing process in which the nurse carries out a complete and holistic nursing assessment of every patient's needs, regardless of the reason for the encounter” (Estes. M, 2002,pg 47). Health assessments are performed by nurses in a various places like communities,

Firstly, is the restores practices that modify the impact of illness and disease. In this way the nurse is able to assess holistically. Specifically, asking questions about their spiritual and social life. Secondly, is the supportive practices that are oriented toward modification of relationships or the environment to support health. This requires the nurses knowledge on the ability to judge their patients level of education and observe for patients response. For instance, a person with slurred speech may indicate mental disorder. Thirdly, is to promote practices that mobilize healthy patterns of living with foster personal and familial development that supports self-defined goals of individuals, families and communities. In this case the nurse integrates the role as an educator, advocator and care giver. For example, the nurse educated the client about their health and ways they can

M, 2002, pg. 56). Things that promote health includes sleep, diet, exercise, stress management, use of safety devices and health check ups. Ms AW states of a normal sleep cycle that is usually seven hours of duration and seems to be disturbed by the neighbours dogs that usually barks out aloud at night. She does not face any difficulty in falling asleep but has experiencing bed wetting for the last two months. Patient AW is not on any special diet and has a stable weight for the last nine months. She prefers home gardening every afternoon and watering her flowers as part of exercise with a twenty minutes walk to the sea wall everyday. Normally Ms AW heart rate would be 130 diastolic and 90 systolic. When stressed, she listens to music and goes for massaging in order to alleviate the stress. Using this skill of alleviating stress enables her to relax and effectively participate in her work. Stress arises when there is too much work load for like going for shopping with loads to carry. AW uses protective equipment’s like hand gloves and safety boots while in the flower garden. This is to prevent unwanted accidents from happening like stepping on a nail. Ms AW usually visits the hospital every two to three months for check-ups and goes for gum therapy every four