Dear Students,
Welcome to F.A. Davis’s Nursing Health Assessment: A Critical Thinking, Case Study Approach, second edition. Assessment is the first step of the nursing process and probably the most important because your assessment directs the rest of the process. It does not matter what your outcomes and goals are if you “missed it” on the assessment!
Assessment is a thinking, doing, and feeling process.You need to think as you act and interact with your patients. Think critically as you proceed through the assessment process and make clinical decisions.
Assessment is a skill, and as with any skill, the more you practice, the better you become.This book will walk you through the assessment process, but it is up to you to develop the skill. As a beginning practitioner, focus on learning the normal. Once you are able to identify the normal, if something abnormal occurs, you will know! Initially, you may not be able to identify the abnormal, but you will know that it does not belong. Don’t worry; with practice you will be able not only to identify the normal, but also to differentiate it from the abnormal.
You will use assessment in every area of nursing. As you perfect your assessment skills, you will find that you can apply them to all levels of health care, in the community, in acute care, in the home, and in long-term care. F.A. Davis has a variety of resources available to meet your learning needs and develop your assessment skills.Here is a brief guide on how to use them.
■ Interact with the case study in the text.This is your patient.
■ Review your anatomy and physiology, apply the assessment process, and identify your learning needs through the self-evaluation exercises in the applications text.
■ Listen to the heart, breath, and bowel auscultatory sounds again and again until you can clearly hear each sound.
■ Visit DavisPlus for additional resources.
■ Validate your assessment findings and perfect your skills by using your pocket guide in the clinical area.
Consider this text your guide to assessment.Take ownership of it as you learn to assess. Consider the case studies as your patients. As you interact with them, you will learn assessment. Every patient encounter provides you with an opportunity to assess, so seize the opportunity.You can learn so much from your patients. Make each encounter with your patient a learning experience as you develop the skill—and art—of assessment. So practice, practice, practice! And have fun as you develop your assessment skills.
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