Updated to reflect today’s changing healthcare environment, this unique, modern approach to health assessment guides you progressively through realistic clinical case scenarios, emphasizing health promotion, risk factor reduction, evidence-based thinking, and diagnostic reasoning. Effective strategies help you adapt questions and techniques to confidently manage communication challenges, unexpected patient responses, changes in a patient’s condition over time, and more.
Highlights of the Third Edition
- Progressive Case Studies in each chapter help you capably apply concepts to clinical practice through:
- Therapeutic Dialogue displays that hone the communication and critical thinking skills essential for gathering assessment data.
- Progress Note sections that provide sample SOAP (Subjective data, Objective data, Analysis, and Plan) notes documenting summaries of findings, with accompanying critical thinking questions.
- Documenting Case Study Findings boxes that summarize abnormal findings in the physical examination (determined through inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation).
- Collaborating With the Interprofessional Team displays that feature SBAR (Situation, Background, Analysis or Assessment, and Recommendations) frameworks for effectively coordinating referrals or other patient advocacy needs.
- Clinical Reasoning in Action sections that demonstrate how to bring all the elements of assessment together to determine a nursing diagnosis and related goals, interventions, rationales, and evaluation criteria.
- NEW! Concept Mastery Alerts clarify potentially confusing topics.
- More than 70 NANDA-I Diagnoses with official definitions and defining characteristics
- Learning Objectives focus on critical information and can help you study more effectively.
- Clinical Significance boxes emphasize content critically related to clinical application.
- Safety Alert boxes highlight areas of concern or results that require immediate intervention or adjustments.
- Key Points summarized at the end of each chapter reinforce the most important content at a glance.
- Review Questions help you identify content requiring additional review.
- Tables of Abnormal Findings facilitate fast, effective assessments.
- Accompanying interactive learning resources such as videos and animations, referenced with icons in the text, appeal to a variety of learning styles.