skills for physical assessment

[tequilaseay13]

I need help with doing physical assessment of the body. Is there a video to watch to do a full assessment on the body? I am on the border to failing one of my nursing class, should i go ahead and take the final or drop the class. I want to go ahead and take the final, only thing I need to do is get a C on the final that will mean I will have a C in the class.

[RN BSN 2009]

Are you going to watch the video to do the test, or do you have to perform a physical exam in front of your instructor?

[tequilaseay13]

have to do the exam in front of the teacher. i would like to watch a video about how to do a proper physical assessement from head to toe.

[RN BSN 2009]

Which book are you using? Mine has as CD that comes with the book and has the entire H2T assessment split up into 2 or 3 videos.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

there is all kinds of weblinks in this sticky thread on this forum:

• https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/health-assessment-resources-techniques-forms-145091.html - health assessment resources, techniques, and forms
  

several of the weblinks have videos on them, particularly the medical school sites.

[tequilaseay13]

my book does not have the video to show how to do a head to toe examination.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

You know, this is probably not a real good thing for me to be saying on the Internet, especially to students, but I'm going to say it anyway because I had to take a class in physical assessment many years ago and had to do a final exam where we had to perform a physical exam with an instructor present. My partner and I discussed this thoroughly before our final exam.

Think about this. How does the instructor know what you are hearing, seeing, or feeling? They are not inside your body. They can only watch what you are doing. So, you, in essence, have to put on a performance (now I know I'm going to get in trouble for saying this). I know you want to hear, see and feel everything correctly, but is the instructor going to be doing the assessment too? I doubt it. Your mission is to look like you know what you are doing. There. I said it. You can get that from looking at pictures and practicing on any old body. The second part of the final is writing it up. You can also get that from your textbooks. How in the sam hill is the instructor going to know if you found something abnormal during your physical assessment unless you tell him/her? Hmmmm? Unless your partner is someone the instructors are making you use and that they know has certain particular quirks that they will be looking for you to nail in the assessment, I don't know why students get so worried about this final exam. At the time I did it, and today, I still consider this particular final exam to be nothing more than a performance for the instructor, an easy "A" if you keep your cool.

Now, let me clarify this because I know I'm expressing a bad attitude about this. I'm not saying to anyone that they shouldn't learn this assessment information. You dog gone well had better learn it. I consider learning to be one thing and grades to be another. I'm saying that for your grade, it's not worth getting your panties in a twist over. Put yourself in the instructor's shoes and consider how the heck they are going to be able to tell exactly what it is that you are doing unless they are digging in and doing the same assessment along with you, which I doubt. How do they know if you're seeing wax when you look into someone's external ear canal? Unless they're standing at the right spot, how do they know you saw the red reflex in the person's eyeball? As long as you put the bell of your stethoscope on the right spots of the person's chest, how in the blazes can the instructor know if you hear rales, clear breath sounds or the ocean? I would practice how to elicit a proper DTR (deep tendon reflex) so you don't injure your poor partner with the reflex hammer. Get my drift?