Advanced Clinical Assessment and Decision-Making
| Study level: | Master |
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Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overall assessment of a patient’s case and discuss some aspects of overall care. According to Lamar University (2018), the goal of nursing has always been the healing of not only the physical symptoms but also the mind and soul of an individual. Therefore, a holistic assessment is a process under which a patient’s health state is analyzed from the viewpoint of not only their physical symptoms but also their mental state and their environment’s impact on their wellbeing. Holistic assessment allows nurses to gain a better comprehension of the patient’s physical and psychological state and the factors that can help or hinder the process of healing.
Summary of the Patient Case
The patient in question is a 57 years old male admitted to the emergency care department. The symptoms are chest pains that radiate to the back of his neck and arm and a short breath. Mr. Vlog’s family history shows that his father has died from a heart attack, which is the first factor of the holistic assessment of the patient’s family history. Secondly, Mr. Vlog’s lifestyle predisposes him to a heart attack since he admits to smoking 15 cigarettes per day since he was 20 years old. According to Better Health Chanel (n.d.), heavy smoking is among the primary risk factors for the development of severe issues linked to one’s cardiovascular system. FDA (n.d., para. 1) states that “when breathed in, the toxic mix of more than 7,000 chemicals1 in cigarette smoke can interfere with important processes in your body that keep it functioning normally.” As a result, this brief assessment shows that Mr. Vlog’s current environment, genetics, and habits affect his health adversely and put him at risk of having a heart attack. The following sections will address the assessment methodologies and tools that can be used to communicate to Mr. Vlog the importance of a healthy lifestyle.
The Importance of Holistic Assessment
Holistic assessment of patient cases is a relatively new approach to working with individuals. That is why one should pay careful attention to the critic of this method to be able to critically appraise its benefits and downsides. This practice was first introduced by Florence Nightingale in the 19th century since Nightingale was the first nurse to draw attention to the interrelationships between the person, their environment, and their wellbeing (Lamar University, 2018). The goal of a holistic assessment is disease prevention, which is achieved by analyzing the impact of the family and community on the person’s wellbeing (Weiss, 2017). Thus, patients become more aware of the factors that may affect their health and are more likely to engage in self-care practices.
The importance of a holistic assessment is linked to patient-centered care and mutual goal setting, both of which allow achieving the best possible results for the patient. The University of Texas Arlington (2018, para. 5) defines a holistic assessment as a method under which “a nurse typically dives deeper into a patient’s health history.” Wellness goals are the end result of a holistic health assessment, which allows a nurse to draw a patient’s attention to the specific changes. It targets health-related markers that will indicate that these changes were successful.
Hence, for example, with Mr. Vlog, it is evident that his history of heavy smoking has an impact on his health and his heart’s function. Therefore, a nurse and a patient can set a goal to reduce the number of cigarettes this patient smokes per day and to eventually quit smoking to help him address his heart-related problems (Darawshy et al., 2021; Kwong et al., 2019). Next, heart failure is also associated with issues such as food and physical activity, and the nurse should set a goal to address these as well (FDA, n.d.). Moderate physical activity several times per week can serve as an adequate measure to help this patient reduce his risk of developing further heart problems.