Ear assessment
The ear is a sensory structure that plays a critical role in the life of human beings because it ensures their ability to get in touch with the world and coordinate their actions. If people have disorders of the ear, they are not simply deprived of a possibility to communicate with others but also become at risk of having life-threatening issues. Thus, it is critical to maintaining regular ear assessment (especially, if some problems are already noticed). Whisper voice test is one of the ways to conduct free-field voice testing. This screening method allows defining the presence of a hearing impairment. What is more, it determines whether one or two ears are affected by a low-pitch or low-tone hearing loss. To conduct it, a professional stands 2 feet behind a patient who obstructs one ear with a finger to obscure sounds. Being not able to read the professional’s lips, he/she listens to a word that consists of 2 different syllables and repeats them (McShefferty, Whitmer, Swan, & Akeroyd, 2013).
Functional assessment effectiveness during hospital stays
According to Hanley (2012), when people reveal problem behavior, professionals need to focus on its function in order to apply an appropriate intervention to avoid it in the future. In the majority of cases, particular behaviors are maintained to gain attention, escape an activity, setting, company, etc. that is not preferred, to arouse sensory stimulation, and to get some item. Functional assessment is rather effective during hospital stays because it allows to find out why a patient is depressed, anxious, scared, or angry, etc. and to alter it so that a patient. As a result, professionals can ensure one is in a stable emotional condition that does not affect his/her physical state and does not prevent medical staff from maintaining their duties or threatens other clients. It also allows to find out the needs of a patient. To perform it, one should define the behavior, gather and analyze associated information, think of possible reasons, develop a plan to change this behavior, and implement it.
Eye examination assessment and proer way of its implementation, benefits
Assessment of eye condition is important because it allows to define existing problems connected with people’s vision and prevent their development. It also allows to improve one’s vision or avoid its complete loss. An eye examination can be maintained in different ways, depending on the complaints. It is possible to maintain slit-lamp examination, optic nerve tests, intraocular pressure measurement, etc. However, basic examination starts with the assessment of acuity. It is conducted using a Snellen hanging wall chart (Perera, Chakrabarti, Islam, & Crowston, 2015). Being at a distance of 20 feet, a patient should close one eye and say what is written on a chart. A special pocket card is used if a patient claim that one cannot see the things nearby. It should be read when holding a chart at 14 inches. Initially, one starts reading those symbols that are large, skipping to the smaller ones if no complaints exist. If a person fails to see something, a professional state the current acuity and defines what lenses are needed for one to see better. Those clients who already wear glasses are allows to put them on so that it can be checked whether they are still appropriate.
Teach back method as part of nursing assessment
The nursing assessment provides an opportunity to collect relevant information about client’s condition, including all its peculiarities. In order to be sure that the patient understands the question correctly and answers appropriately, nursing professionals can refer to a teach-back method. Basically, it ensures the understanding of the perceived information, as patients are asked to repeat the things they have heard in their own words. With the help of paraphrasing, they reveal that they really realize what they need to do or know, as well as what they maintained or experienced. This tool can be used by any nursing professional with no additional requirements, which is rather convenient. It can also reduce the number of canceled or missed appointments and enhance overall health outcomes (Centrella-Nigro & Alexander, 2017).
Electronic health record and patient assessment
When maintaining patient assessment, medical professionals gather new information about patient’s condition as well as the one obtained previously. Unfortunately, clients are not able to provide all data themselves, so there is a necessity to resort to a health record. Nowadays, a lot of healthcare facilities use electronic health record (EHR) because it allows exchanging required data easily. As a result, the quality of care improves and healthcare services are provided faster. EHR ensures the availability of the records and provides complete health information needed for diagnosis. It reduces possible errors and improves nurses’ productivity. It makes prescribing more reliable and develops the promotion of complete and accurate documentation. Finally, it allows to reduce costs and save time because paperwork decreases greatly (Aljarullah & El-masri, 2013).
SBAR complete report and assessment findings
SBAR complete report is very useful for medical staff and patients. It allows nurses to share assessment findings with physicians. This report includes the most critical and relevant information about clients’ condition, treatment, and noticed changes. It also ensures effective communication among the personnel and makes it easier to share information. Following a particular format (situation, background, assessment, and recommendation), professionals ensure a better understanding of the data. Even though nurses tend to provide all this information without SBAR, it streamlines operations due to the maintenance of a particular sequence. For it to be advantageously used, a copy is provided to all medical professionals. The staff should also provide feedback to see if additional education is required (Zhu, McCrea, & Kelsall, 2014).
References
Aljarullah, A., & El-masri, S. (2013). A novel system architecture for the national integration of electronic health records: A semi-centralized approach. Journal of Medical Systems, 37(4), 9953.
Centrella-Nigro, A. & Alexander, C. (2017). Using the teach-back method in patient education to improve patient satisfaction. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 48(1), 47-52.
Hanley, G. (2012). Functional assessment of problem behavior: Dispelling myths, overcoming implementation obstacles, and developing new lore. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 5(1), 554-72.
McShefferty, D., Whitmer, W., Swan, I., & Akeroyd, M. (2013). The effect of experience on the sensitivity and specificity of the whispered voice test: a diagnostic accuracy study. BMJ Open, 3(4), e002394.
Perera, C., Chakrabarti, R., Islam, F., & Crowston, J. (2015). The eye phone study: reliability and accuracy of assessing Snellen visual acuity using smartphone technology. Eye, 29(7), 888-894.
Zhu, H., McCrea, N., & Kelsall, W. (2014). Improving the paediatric handover: quality, safety and SBAR. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 99, A82.