The Role of the Nurse in Assessment

The Role of the Nurse in Assessment

The role of the nurse in health assessment includes obtaining the patient’s health history and performing a physical assessment. This role can be carried out in a variety of settings, including the acute care setting, clinic or outpatient office, school, long-term care facility, and the home. A growing list of nursing diagnoses is used by nurses to identify and categorize patient problems that nurses have the knowledge, skills, and responsibility to treat in-dependently. All members of the health care team—physicians, nurses, nutritionists, social workers, and others—use their unique skills and knowledge to contribute to the resolution of patient problems by first obtaining a health history and physical exami-nation. Because the focus of each member of the health care team is unique, a variety of health history and physical examination formats have been developed. Regardless of the format, the data-base obtained by the nurse is complementary to the databases ob-tained by other members of the health care team and focuses on nursing’s unique concern for the patient.