Overview

NURS 326 Health Assessment assists nursing students in the development of interviewing and history taking skills as well as skills in physical examination and psychosocial assessment. The collection of data through these skills is the first step in the nursing process: the data are used as the basis of nursing diagnoses and nursing interventions to promote health, prevent illness or manage illness.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of NURS 326, the student will achieve or exceed the following learning outcomes:

• Identify the components of a complete health assessment;
• Identify the equipment and skills required to perform a complete health assessment;
• Identify developmental and cultural considerations in the performance of a health assessment;
• Collect and document a complete health history with a healthy adult volunteer;
• Conduct and document a physical examination with a healthy adult volunteer;
• Adapt the techniques of health assessment for children and older adults;
• Identify the relationship between health assessment and the nursing process; and
• Identify patient teaching and health promotion activities appropriate for a healthy adult volunteer.

Course Structure

Evaluation

To receive credit for NURS 326, students must complete all of the required assignments and achieve an overall composite grade of a “C-” (60 percent). All papers submitted must follow the guidelines of the APA Publication Manual (5th ed.)( 2001).

The assignments and weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.

Course Materials

Textbook

Jarvis, C. (2004). Physical examination and health assessment (4th ed.). St. Louis: Saunders.

Other Materials

Students will receive an Access Letter in the course package with instructions for gaining access to this online course. A variety of electronic journal articles and web sites are used in the course and paper copies are not included in the course package.