NURS 680B Advanced Health/Physical Assessment Week 8 Assignment Comprehensive Physical Exam (Shadow Health)

This assignment is to be completed in Shadow Health. Even though your activity and responses will be recorded in Shadow Health, in Blackboard click on the assignment name above, select the Write Submission option, type the word “Confirmed” and then click Submit to save.

The Tina Jones comprehensive and physical assessment polished my physical examination skills of examining the various body systems. I developed skills in interviewing a patient on their current symptoms, past medical history, and lifestyle practices that will guide in developing a management plan. I learned that every question asked to a patient should have a rationale and should help in coming up with a definitive diagnosis and ruling out the differentials. I also learned new techniques on examining the neurological system when assessing if a patient has developed symptoms of nephropathy, which is a common complication of diabetes. The examination techniques for neuropathy included testing graphesthesia, stereognosis, position sense, and testing for sensations with monofilament, light touch, dull pain, and sharp pain. I plan to integrate the assessment and physical examination skills in the future when assessing patients to rule out or confirming a diagnosis. I will also apply the skills in assessing diabetic patients for risks of diabetic complications to facilitate early treatment and avoid morbidity.

In my future professional practice, I plan to assess every health educational material offered to patients to ensure that it is readable and understandable to all patients. Determining the readability of health materials will involve reviewing the language used to ensure that there is no medical jargon used and that medical terms have been explained in plain language (Wittink & Oosterhaven, 2018). I will also utilize readability assessment tools such as The Flesch-Kincaid readability tool to assess the readability score of each material and evaluating whether patients will understand based on their level of education (Wittink & Oosterhaven, 2018). I plan to integrate the skills in assessing readabiltiy into my professional practice when providing health education to patients to promote healthy behaviors and prevention of diseases.

A health care provider should assess a patient’s health literacy when providing health education to ensure that the patient can understand the education interventions. The patients’ education level significantly influences their ability to read and understand health education materials (Hersh, Salzman & Snyderman, 2015). During this course, I learned that a patient’s health literacy influences their health behaviors, including their lifestyle practices and disease prevention and control practices. Besides, health literacy levels affect an individual’s well-being, and people with low literacy levels are more likely to have poor health than those with high literacy levels (Wittink & Oosterhaven, 2018). On the other hand, patients with high literacy levels can understand health education provided to maintain health and prevent diseases, and this promotes healthy well-being.

References

Hersh, L., Salzman, B., & Snyderman, D. (2015). Health Literacy in Primary Care Practice. American family physician, 92(2).

Wittink, H., & Oosterhaven, J. (2018). Patient education and health literacy. Musculoskeletal Science and Practice, 38, 120-127.