Health Assessment for Nursing Practice - Elsevier eBook on VitalSource, 6th Edition

• Straightforward, easy-to-understand coverage gives students the knowledge and confidence to perform a complete physical examination.
• NEW! Refocused and streamlined content eliminates "content saturation" by drastically reducing the amount of advanced practice and examination procedures, techniques, and content, thus keeping students focused on the most common and important techniques.
• NEW! Student Laboratory Manual (sold separately) is an invaluable resource to help students master health assessment and physical examination.
• NEW! Improved page layout features a less cluttered and more reader-friendly look thanks to the removal of extraneous tables and illustrations.
• NEW! Improved "look and feel" includes updated fonts, photos, and illustrations to make the material more readable and the concepts easier-to-understand.
• NEW! Two new concept overviews help you incorporate the physiological principles of metabolism and nutrition into your nursing curriculum.
• Clear differentiation between basic skills and advanced procedures or special-circumstance procedures helps students pinpoint essential assessments and focus on the need-to-know.
• NEW! Updated electronic documentation content ensures accuracy and congruency with the most current technology and best practices.
• NEW! Updated ethnic/cultural/spiritual variations content reflects the latest trends currently being seen in practice.
• Two-column format creates a visual distinction between normal and abnormal findings and techniques.
• UNIQUE! Concept Overview boxes present core concepts in the context of health assessment, with discussions of pain, oxygenation, perfusion, tissue integrity, motion, sensory perception, metabolism, and intracranial regulation.
• Vivid full-color photos walk students step-by-step through key assessment techniques and help them understand key abnormalities.
• UNIQUE! Clinical Reasoning boxes explain the thought process of an experienced nurse making a clinical decision to help students gain expert perspective on clinical judgment and the decision-making process in nursing practice. These boxes are presented in algorithm format and focus on Tanner's skills of noticing, interpreting, responding, and reflecting.
• UNIQUE! Patients with Situational Variations sections address special circumstances or needs for patients in wheelchairs or with other limitations, with related exam variations.
• Documenting Expected Findings sections teach students how to chart normal findings --- a perpetual area of struggle among nursing students.
• Review Questions help students assess their understanding of need-to-know content. Additional Review Questions on the Evolve companion website supplement those found in the book.
• UNIQUE! Case studies at the end of each chapter give students practice in developing their clinical reasoning skills in the context of health assessment and physical examination.
• UNIQUE! Adapting Health Assessment to the Hospitalized Patient chapter explains special techniques for performing a head-to-toe assessment of a patient in a hospital setting.
• Health Promotion for Evidence-Based Practice boxes apply the U.S. government's Healthy People 2020 objectives and include thorough discussions of recommendations for health promotion and reducing risk.
• Ethnic, Cultural, and Spiritual Variations boxes help students anticipate the unique needs of a multicultural patient population.
• Health Assessment Across the Life Span unit contains four separate chapters that cover all lifespan content, including older adults, pregnant patients, and infants, children, and adolescents.
• Synthesis and Application of Health Assessment unit details how to conduct, document, and adapt the head-to-toe examination.

• NEW! Refocused and streamlined content eliminates "content saturation" by drastically reducing the amount of advanced practice and examination procedures, techniques, and content that are applicable to nurse practitioner levels; thus keeping readers focused on the most common and important learnings and procedures.
• NEW! Student laboratory manual (sold separately) provides an invaluable resource for mastering physical examination.
• NEW! Improved page layout features a less cluttered and more reader-friendly look thanks to the removal of extraneous tables and illustrations.
• NEW! Improved text design includes updated fonts, photos, and illustrations to make the material more readable and the concepts easier-to-understand.
• NEW! Two new concept overviews incorporate the physiological principles of metabolism and nutrition into text material.
• NEW! Updated electronic documentation content ensures accuracy and congruency with the most current technology and best practices.
• NEW! Updated ethnic/cultural/spiritual variations content reflects the latest trends currently being seen in practice today.

Unit I. Foundations for Health Assessment
1. Introduction to Health Assessment
2. Interviewing Patients to Obtain a Health History
3. Techniques and Equipment for Physical Assessment
4. General Inspection and Measurement of Vital Signs
5. Ethnic, Cultural, and Spiritual Considerations
6. Pain Assessment
7. Mental Health and Abusive Behavior Assessment
8. Nutritional Assessment

Unit II. Health Assessment of the Adult
9. Skin, Hair, and Nails
10. Head, Eyes, Ears, Nose, and Throat
11. Lungs and Respiratory System
12. Heart and Peripheral Vascular System
13. Abdomen and Gastrointestinal System
14. Musculoskeletal System
15. Neurologic System
16. Breasts and Axillae
17. Reproductive System and the Perineum

Unit III. Health Assessment Across the Life Span
18. Developmental Assessment Throughout the Life Span
19. Assessment of the Infant, Child, and Adolescent
20. Assessment of the Pregnant Patient
21. Assessment of the Older Adult

Unit IV. Synthesis and Application of Health Assessment
22. Conducting a Head-to-Toe Examination
23. Documenting the Head-to-Toe Health Assessment
24. Adapting Health Assessment to an Ill Patient

Appendixes
A. Abbreviations
B. Answer Key
IBC: Special Features