Physical Assessment

[Stdy2BaNurse]

We have been introduced to physical assessment over 2 - 1 1/2 hour lectures. This is all the information we get (besides textbook obviously) and we are expected to be able to do a complete head-to-toe physical assessment by next Tuesday. I have a couple of issues.....#1, I have never had a doc - much less a nurse - do an assessment on me like the kind we are expected to learn in a week. #2 - even the instructors have said "this isn't enough time....if you were going to the local university you would be taking this as a course over the whole semester...but since you're not we have to cram it into a week!" #3 - when we check-off we will not know until right before what body system to be responsible for and we cannot take our 'cheat sheet' in on the check-off.

This is mostly a vent - but at the same time, is this normal? Are other students being expected to do this in-depth of an assessment? Are there any nurses out there that actually do these in-depth assessments? There must be for them to be requiring us to learn so much (in a short time)....but as I said before, never even had a doc assess me like this.

Thanks for letting me air my frustrations :)

[Ausculapius]

Yep, its pretty tough to remember all the steps of a physical assessment.

I have tried to solicit family members and such to practice on, however I have been unsuccessful. Though, in my lab we have done ZERO Physical assesment skill testing. Instead, we have focused on administering meds and checking vitals. This is fine by me! I'm more worried about giving someone the wrong med/dosage in clincal than doing a not-so-great physical.

Besides, I really wonder how often a true head to toe physical is done in any healthcare facility. When I had to get one done for my nursing school admissions my Doc only did the abdominal portion and just checked off the rest of the list as fine. Go figure.

[Stdy2BaNurse]

A HUGE thank you to everyone! As always, you can count on everyone here to encourage, teach and if nothing else commiserate with your pain

I will definitely be checking out the links - I did see the one Daytonite posted in another thread for gyn-exam and that one has quite a few examples, too. So I think between the links, the book, my notes and yes - every warm body between now and Tuesday, hopefully it won't be too bad.

wdwpixie - you are so right, I need to keep reminding myself of that...I have friends in the 2nd year that were in pre-reqs with me. I keep saying...I know these people - if they can do it, so can I.

Thanks again to everyone - good luck and have a blessed day!!

[moongirl]

I'll have to remember this when responding to posts where people want to know the differences between AA and BSN programs. For my BSN program we had a separate class on assessment with a lab.

not always true, I am in an ADN program, it was an entire 4 hour lecture, plus a 6 hour lab to practice and on top of that, we had an instructor watched checkoff(and she watched like a freakin hawk) we had to perform on a live body to prove we could do head to toe correctly before we started our clinical rotations. We are ALWAYS expected to do head to toe assessments on our pts, even now when I am juggling 4 or 5 each time.

[landonsles]

I'll have to remember this when responding to posts where people want to know the differences between AA and BSN programs. For my BSN program we had a separate class on assessment with a lab.

I attended an ADN program, and we also had a separate assessment class with a lab--and it was an entire semester. So it is not necessarily an ADN vs BSN thing--it's a "where you're going to school" thing. :wink2:

[heatherp]

I attended an ADN program, and we also had a separate assessment class with a lab--and it was an entire semester. So it is not necessarily an ADN vs BSN thing--it's a "where you're going to school" thing. :wink2:

I agree it's a "where you're going to school" thing, not an ADN vs BSN thing. I'm in a BSN program. We've had a couple of short lectures so far. We will never have an entire semester class.

[RN to Be 2010]

I am in the same situation. I learned my assessment in 2 lectures and I have to go in to skills next week and pick a body system out of a hat and recite everything including which cranial nerves go where to my teacher. She just says review your book. Well I have but I still don't know what I am doing

[belaya_volna]

In my class we had to do a TOTAL assessment. It was brutal. And I still have to redo it. I am not looking forward to it.

[tbell2]

Alot of people in my class found this helpful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvU3-ZN_VjE

[lemonaidangel]

I can't even begin to imagine having to learn all that stuff in one week. That's insane. My school had us take an actual assessment class that lasts an entire semester, with lab every other week for us to practice on each other. The big final was a complete head to toe assessment. Sheesh, and I freaked out about that, even having all that time to prepare. No wonder you guys are so stressed!

[NursingRocks1998]

I'm in an 18 month intensive ADN program and we have 10 wk quarters- we got one whole class on physical assessment with a lab portion- we got one system per week and then used that week's lab to practice- our final was a check off on a complete head to toe with no cheat sheet- we all made it and you will too! It does seem pretty fast though- good luck :) You'll get through it!

[Sharingan]

I am in the same boat! We had 1 lecture for vital signs and 1 lecture for head-to-toe assessment and that was it. We got to practice only 2 times in the skill lab and now we are expected to be able to do it on the patients. Plus, we have to perform the physical assessment in front of an RN and get checked off by next week. Some of my classmates did the test two days ago and unfortunately they didn't pass. I am scheduled to do my physical assessment check off tomorrow and I am really nervous about it. We're not allowed to have the list with us, so we have to memorize every step. Some people didn't pass because they forgot or skipped some steps. I hope I won't forget anything when I do mine tomorrow.

Also, today was our first clinical day and we were expected to perform the head-to-toe assessment on our patients on the floor. Most people really freaked out about that. I was one of them actually. I mean, it's our first day on the floor (first time meeting the patients) and we're supposed to go in and do a complete head-to-toe?!? That was a bit overwhelming. Plus, we only got 2.5 hours to get it done! This was during lunch time AND visiting hours!! So, needless to say, many of us didn't get to do all the steps. In fact, one girl actually cried in the hallway. She was overwhelmed. I don't blame her. I think they (the instructors) really expect a lot from us, to the point that I think they sometimes forget that we are 1st semester students.

Sigh, I'm stressed out just to think about it.

[McClain]

Those of you who had live people to practice or do your exam with, do you know how they got there? Did they volunteer to the school, did you find them and bring them with you or did the school hire them? As an instuctor I want to give my students the most realistic experience possible and I will be submitting a proposal to the school I work at to get them to consider soliciting volunteers or hiring models for this purpose, but my concern is how they'll deal with the potential liability. It's hard to imagine that performing the type of physical assessment nurses perform could result in any harm, but given the litigous climate in California, I think the school will balk at getting live people for physical assessment practice. I'm not even going to suggest that they submit to practice for injections, catheters or anything invasive!