The health assessment nursing class is one of the most important courses that students take in nursing school. Nurses have many responsibilities, including assessing the needs of their patients. Nurses must make observations and use assessment tools to determine the course of treatment for each of their patients. The initial health assessment is vital to the patient’s continuous well-being.  The health assessment course that nursing student take in nursing school can provide the foundation for the job that nurses perform each day.  Proper recording of health assessment information is vital to patient care.

What is Health Assessment?

Health assessment involves collecting information and data from patients that is used to create a plan to get the patient’s health back to good standings.  The course is taught through classroom instruction and lectures.  Students gain practical experience through their lab experiences.

Health assessment involves using medical skills and tools to master the course objectives. Nurses must learn to read their patients’ charts and vital signs to create the health assessments.  Health assessment not only includes observations but interviews as well.  During the patient interview, nurses ask questions to gain a better understanding of the patient’s sociocultural, psychological, and economic factors that may contribute to the patient’s health.

Superior health assessment skills are imperative to providing the best care possible for each patient.  Nurses must continuously improve on these skills to help their patients remain as healthy as possible.

How Nurses use Health Assessment of the Job

Nurses use health assessment when they interview their patients.  During this initial stage, nurses meet with clients to ask questions and make observations of the health needs. The nurse records an abundance of subjective data to help to make a health assessment. The patients provide the nurse with a vivid description of their symptoms and injuries so that the nurse can determine treatment options.  The nurse may also ask the patient about his or her concerns so that they can make a more exact diagnosis and treatment plan.  The nurse is also evaluating the patient’s current psychological needs during the interview and observation stage.

Nursing professionals learn an acronym that helps them to assess their patient’s level of pain during the initial interview and observation stage of treatment. The acronym PQRST is used to assess pain.  The patient may be asked to describe his or her pain, the quantity or quality of the pain, the location or change of location of the pain, severity and setting of the pain, and onset or timing of the pain the patient experiences.  The pain level is rated on a scale from 1 to 10 with 1 being the lowest level of pain.

The health assessment course also trains patients in the manner in which to collect data and position patients for examinations and observations properly. Nursing students use their knowledge of medical equipment to test the reflexes, breathing rate, blood pressure, heartbeat, and various other health indicators that help determine a course of action.  Students learn skills such as palpation, auscultation, and percussion to assess the medical needs of patients. Students practice the use of various health assessment tools so that they can help to create a precise judgment of the patient’s health needs.

Best Study Guide

As a nursing student you will be required to learn a lot of material in a short amount of time. Health assessment is one of the most important nursing classes student nurses are required to take. In this nursing class you will be tested on many chapters at once and will be required to remember this material for further nursing classes and for the NCLEX-RN exam.

In order to be successful in this nursing class, the nursing student should consider getting a study guide to help them study. Study guides help break down the material and point you in the right direction on what material you will be tested on by your professor and the NCLEX-RN exam.

A great study guide for health assessment is called “Health Assessment Made Incredibly Visual! (Incredibly Easy! Series)”. Here is what it looks like:

Tips on How to Study for Health Assessment in Nursing School

Nursing school can be extremely difficult so students must find method to help them study for the exams. Here are a few tips that can help nursing students meet success in their health assessment course.

• Consult with the professor. It may be a good idea to meet with the professor at the beginning of the course so that he or she can provide guidance as to what nursing students should study to be successful on the exams.
• Make flashcards with pictures. Flashcards can help nursing students remember the most difficult concepts of nursing. It is important to make sure that the visual representations have a personal meaning so that the student can easily remember the concepts and images.
• Focus of what is normal in health assessment. The best way to identify problems in a health assessment is to memorize what a normal assessment should look and sound like.

Health assessments are the first step in identifying factors that contribute to problems with patients’ health. The outcome of the visit to the doctor depends heavily on the information provided in the health assessment and observation stage of the visit. Nurses depend of the skills they learn in their health assessment courses to help them provide the best care for each of their patients.