(Please write about 2 pages to answer the questions below about getting ready to start clinical as a nurse practitioner student after learning this advanced physical assessment class, I will be specializing in psychiatric, you can talk about a little bit with mental health assessment ).
As you embark on the next steps towards your journey as a clinician and provider/ APRN, reflect on how the different skills you have learned from this class will be of value when you start clinical rotation in the coming weeks. Do you feel competent enough or are their still some areas you feel you need to improve on? In your opinion, is a robust eight-week course enough for you to attain a minimum set of skills in physical assessment? Why or why not? Discussion Board of Advanced Health Assessment Essay
Textbook:
Physical Examination and Health Assessment
• Author: Jarvis, C.
• Publisher: Saunders
• Edition: 7th
Advanced Health Assessment & Clinical Diagnosis in Primary Care
• Author: Daines, J. E., Baumann, L. C. and Scheibel, P.
• Publisher: Mosby Elsevier
• Edition: 5th
Discussion Board of Advanced Health Assessment
Advanced assessment is a crucial skill as it is a means to an appropriate and accurate interpretation of the clinical situation and it significantly contributes to the right diagnosis and medical management, particularly in complex patient situations (Hirdes et al, 2020). It is important to note that a nurse’s use of advanced assessment skills equips and enables them to contribute to diagnostic reasoning in the acute surgical and medical setting. Nurses who conduct physical assessments are deemed as the ears of a hospital as their assessment is deemed critical to patient safety and care. To prepare nurses for their various roles, there has been an emphasis on healthcare over the past decades. To teach advanced assessment skills at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Although little research shows the importance of physical assessment skills on patient outcomes, it is important to note that it is the first step to adding value to a patient. Taking this course will be beneficial as it will open up my understanding of the consequences of conducting a physical assessment. Besides, it will be an opportunity to learn and link patient outcomes to physical assessment. Pursuing the course will be an opportunity to explore the potential value and impact of advanced assessment skills, especially on patient outcomes in such complexities. Discussion Board of Advanced Health Assessment Essay
Essentially, every nursing opportunity is imbued with practice and it is, therefore, a moment of theory development and rethinking the assumptions, ideas, practices, and beliefs that govern nursing by assessing the impact of those actions. Further, it will be an opportunity to explore the relationship between the use of advanced assessment skills and patient outcomes through the experience of nursing and the impact of using those skills in individual patient assessment.
The nature of information gathered tends to differ based on the nursing specialty. Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNP) use interviews and examinations as the process of physical assessment to help their patients (Chapman et al, 2018). My field of specialization is psychiatry the course will equip me to use assessments as a baseline to psychiatric mental health records to determine the conditions of patients and establish a health care plan. The PMHNP will be responsible for assessing, diagnosing, and treating the patients. I will be expected to incorporate scientific, theoretical, and clinical knowledge to help patients who are dealing and coping with mental health problems.
It is important to note that PMHNP also treats patients suffering from physical illness besides behavior and mental and emotional challenges (Chapman et al, 2018). Some of the mental health issues I am likely to encounter include Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and mood disorders. The assessment is crucial as the PMHNP needs to comprehend what could be causing the patient distress. Sometimes, the patient may have medical conditions that affect their mental health and could necessarily not be a neurological illness. Other times, the patient may also have both mental and physical ailments. Therefore, the PMHNP is expected to assess and examine the patient’s body and state of mind by conducting an assessment. Discussion Board of Advanced Health Assessment Essay
The course will help understand the proper way of performing the assessment and can rely on the information provided to diagnose and treat the patient. Further, the course will equip me with the communication skills that I require for communicating with patients. This way, it will be easy to interact with patients and understand them even when their health is deteriorating and offer the right support
References
Chapman, S. A., Phoenix, B. J., Hahn, T. E., & Strod, D. C. (2018). Utilization and economic contribution of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners in public behavioral health services. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 54(6), S243-S249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2018.01.045
Hirdes, J. P., Van Everdingen, C., Ferris, J., Franco-Martin, M., Fries, B. E., Heikkilä, J., … & Van Audenhove, C. (2020). The interRAI suite of mental health assessment instruments: an integrated system for the continuum of care. Frontiers in psychiatry, 10, 926.https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00926
Discussion Board of Advanced Health Assessment Essay