This course provides the students with the knowledge and skill necessary to perform a comprehensive health assessment utilizing the skills of history taking, inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation. Normal assessment findings, frequently seen variations from normal and cultural differences are discussed.
The course is taught online for 10 weeks and covers ten sessions which cover introduction and inquiry of health history, physical assessment from head to toe, common symptoms assessment and making nursing diagnosis, normal and common abnormal ECGs, common laboratory tests and the clinical significance of common abnormalities.
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will:
1. Demonstrate history-taking and interviewing skills necessary for comprehensive data collection.
2. Demonstrate beginning level skill in the techniques of physical exam: inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation.
3. Differentiate between normal and abnormal assessment findings.
4. Apply relevant anatomy and physiology to the health assessment process. 5. Integrate health assessment into the nursing process and nursing practice.
6. Differentiate between normal and abnormal ECGs and lab tests.
7. Make nursing diagnosis based on clinical cases.
This course will facilitate you to learn the clinical courses well to be a good nurse.
1. Demonstrate history-taking and interviewing skills necessary for comprehensive data collection.
2. Demonstrate beginning level skill in the techniques of physical exam: inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation.
3. Differentiate between normal and abnormal assessment findings.
4. Apply relevant anatomy and physiology to the health assessment process.
5. Integrate health assessment into the nursing process and nursing practice.
6. Differentiate between normal and abnormal ECGs and lab tests.
7. Make nursing diagnosis based on clinical cases.
Unit 1 Introduction and Health History Taking
1-1 Course Introduction
1-2 Taking Health History
1-3 Basic Methods of PE-Inspection & Palpation
1-4 Basic Methods of PE-Percussion
1-5 Basic Methods of PE- Auscultation
Unit 1 Test
Unit 2 General Assessment
2-1 Habitus and nutritional status
2-2 Facial features and expressions
2-3 Posture,position and gait
2-4 Skin
2-5 Lympth nodes
Unit 2 Test
Unit 3 Head & Neck Assessment
3-1 Head assessment I
3-2 Head assessment II
3-3 Neck assessment
Unit 3 Test
Unit 4 Chest wall, Thorax, Breast, and Lungs Assessment
4-1 Landmarks of the chest wall
4-2 Inspection-Chest wall and thorax assessment
4-3 Inspection-Breathing movement
4-4 Palpation
4-5 Percussion
4-6 Auscultation-Normal & abnormal breath sounds
4-7 Auscultation-Rales
4-8 Breast assessment
Unit 4 Test
Unit 5 Heart and Vascular Assessment
5-1 Heart Anatomy
5-2 Inspection
5-3 Palpation
5-4 Percussion
5-5 Auscultation-Part I-Normal Cardiac Sounds
5-6 Auscultation-Part II-Abnormal Cardiac Sounds & Extra Cardiac Sounds
5-7 Auscultation-Part III-Murmurs
5-8 Auscultation-Part IV-Murmurs & Pericardial Friction Sounds
5-9 Vascular assessment
Unit 5 Test
Unit 6 Abdomen Assessment
6-1 Landmarks of the abdominal wall and abdominal areas
6-2 Inspection I
6-3 Inspection II
6-4 Auscultation
6-5 Percussion
6-6 Palpation-General palpation
6-7 Palpation-Liver, spleen & Gallbladder
Unit 6 Test
Unit 7 Spine, Extremities and Neurological Assessment
7-1 Spine, extremities and joints assessment
7-2 Sensory examinations
7-3 Motor examinations
7-4 Neurological reflex
Unit 7 Test
Unit 8 Psychosocial assessment, Symptoms assessment, and Nursing diagnosis
8-1 Psychological assessment
8-2 Social assessment
8-3 Symptom-Pain assessment
8-4 Symptom-Edema assessment
8-5 Symptom-Dyspnea assessment
8-6 Symptom-Consciousness assessment
8-7 Nursing diagnosis
Unit 8 Test
Unit 9 Electrocardiogram (ECG)
9-1 Basic knowledge of ECG
9-2 The 12-leads of ECG and axis
9-3 Vectors and axis deviation
9-4 Configuration and representation of waves and segments in ECG
9-5 Calculating heart rate
9-6 P wave-1
9-7 P wave-2
9-8 PR Interval
9-9 QRS complex -1
9-10 QRS complex-2
9-11 ST segment
9-12 T wave
9-13 other
Unit 9 Test
Unit 10 Laboratory Examination
10-1 Hematologic examination
10-2 Urine and stool examination
10-3 Kidney and liver functions & punture fluid examination
10-4 Blood biochemical examination
Unit 10 Test
Prerequisites: Anatomy, Physiology, Patho-physiology, and Introduction to Nursing etc.
1.Janet Weber, Jane Kelley. Health Assessment in Nursing. 4th Edition. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2010
2. Lynda Juall Carpenito-Moyet. Nursing diagnosis: application to clinical practice. 10th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2004.
3. Xuehong Wan. Clinical Diagnostics. 1st Edition. People's Medical Publishing House, 2017
4. Cynthia Fenske, Katherine Watkins, Tina Saunders, et al. Health & Physical Assessment in Nursing, 4th Edition, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.2019
1. Some pictures, animations and videos of this course are from the Internet, which can be used for reference in teaching. If it infringes your rights and interests, please contact us.
2. Appropriate online behavior is defined and guided by complete protection for the rights of all students and faculty to a courteous and respectful online class environment.
3. Please do not post illegal or prohibited information on this platform.
4.Plagiarism STATEMENT: It is dishonest to present oral or written work that is not entirely the student's own. Any language taken from another source, whether individual words or entire paragraphs, must be placed within quotation marks and attributed to the source.