UNIVERSITY OF THE VISAYAS

Abellanosa, Erica Mae D. BSN1-A1 NCM101 Jan 24,2024

1. Discuss the 4 categories of health assessment and their significance in clinical practice.

➢ Health assessment is process where the nurses gather pertinent information of the

patient and this assessment plays an important part in a role of the nurse since gathering

pertinent data from the patients can help the nurses what care should the nurses give to

the patients' , and in the Health assessment it has four (4) categories, and these are the

following categories; initial comprehensive assessment, on-going assessment, Focused

or problem-oriented assessment, and lastly the emergency assessment. When we are

talking about Initial Comprehensive Assessment it means that this is the starting point of

the patient and nurse communication, this is where the nurses make rapport to the

patient where the nurse will ask about the patient's information such as name , age or in

a different manner to ask the patient about his/her age is ask about their date of birth

and also ask about their anthropometric measurements ( height , weight , vital signs)

following to that is asking about their chief complaint. Here, the nurses question the

patient about their condition, why they are in the hospital, and their history of present

illness connected to the reason they are experiencing that problem. Initial

Comprehensive Assessment is all-important in clinical practice as it evaluates the

patient's thorough health condition and by this the nurse can create the nursing plan for

the patients. The second category of assessment is the On-going Assessment from the

word itself “on-going” . It means it is continuous, the nurses are continuously checking the

patient's condition from the time he/she enters the emergency room or hospital until the

patient is discharged from the hospital. By doing this the nurse can see changes of the

patient's condition and this is incredibly significant to the clinical practice since as the

patient's condition changes its treatment also changes to their condition, and it's
 particularly important to evaluate time to time the patients to make sure they are receiving

the best care they need. Furthermore, the Focused or problem-oriented assessment is

done when a patient comes to the hospital with a specific health concern so the nurses

will thoroughly assess the specific health concern of the patient. It makes the nurse work

easier because they can spend more time assessing the focused complaint of the

patient. And lastly, the last category is the Emergency Assessment, where nurses

perform a rapid assessment needed in life-threatening situations. Emergency

Assessment uses the ABC techniques in doing the assessment if the patient is

unresponsive.

2. Differentiate medical assessment from nursing assessment. Give sample scenarios on

their significance.

➢ Medical Assessment and Nursing Assessment are different but are interconnected in the

health care system. When we say medical assessment, it is conducted by the physicians

and its primary focus is on pathology, it means it is looking or collecting data to establish

a medical intervention and the physicians can develop a treatment plan. In my own

understanding about this medical assessment is that its focus is a treatment plan. While

nursing assessment is conducted by the registered nurses, it focuses on the general

well-being and health of the patient. It involves an in-depth evaluation of all potential

health-related aspects, including environmental, social, emotional, and physical. Each

assessment has a significance, and I will give 1 same scenario example for each

assessment, such as when a patient is brought into the emergency department

complaining of dyspnea and chest pain. A medical assessment would involve a review of

the patient's past medical records, a physical examination, and the ordering of diagnostic

tests, such as blood tests or electrocardiograms (ECGs), to determine whether the

patient's symptoms are consistent with a cardiac condition, such as a heart attack. On the

contrary a nursing assessment when the patients arrive in the emergency room, the

nurse assigned to the patient will briefly interview the patient's information such as his/her
name and age, also it will ask about the history of present illness after that the nurse will

continue to monitor the patients until the problem has been resolved. In nursing

assessment, it is especially important to know the history of present illness of the patient

because it is possible (that) the patient just eats too much cholesterol foods that causes

his/her dyspnea, there are other factors that can be the reason the patient is feeling that

way. Therefore, I can say that the nursing assessment is a holistic approach and makes

the care plan while the medical assessment is only focusing on how to treat the patient.