So, I'm about to get out in the real world of nursing. I worked as a tech for awhile on a busy med/surg unit so I feel like I have a little real world experience that will come in handy. I realize that not everything you learn in school is practical in practice, but I have a concern about the lack of physical assessments I've witnessed (or failed to witness) by the nurses.
Of course, they tell us in school that we're to do a full physical assessment on each patient at the beginning of our shift. That would include listening to heart/lungs, checking the skin, pupils, etc.
The only time I ever see a full physical assessment is upon admission. I'm wondering, do the nurses just trust that the nurse who admitted the patient documented everything accurately and go by that? What if the patient had a pressure ulcer or something and the admitting nurse didn't see it, or actually didn't even look?
I'd like to do full physical assessments on all my patients, but I am naive to think that's possible? Do you do them each shift? I know that a lot of times you can assess a patient without being obvious so just because I might not see the nurse take off the patient's socks and feel their pedal pulses doesn't mean they didn't do it. However, I have seen patients come in wearing blue jeans and never take their jeans off when the shift changes. So, I KNOW they didn't even glance at the patient's back side, etc.
