Health Assessment of a Geriatric Patient - Assignment Example

Health Assessment of a Geriatric Patient Physical examination and diagnostic testing are crucial aspects of healthcare that must be performed in the right procedure to achieve the desired outcome for the assessment needs. Health assessment of the patients varies depending on the categories of the conditions as well as the age of the patient. It is, therefore, prudent to note that assessment of older people must be done in a specialized manner. Older people easily get fatigued thus assessment should not be prolonged.

In this essence, history taking and physical examination among the elderly should be done at different time to allow a rest between the assessment processes (Elsawy & Higgins, 2011). While performing a health assessment among the geriatric patients, a nurse should keep in mind the special considerations that the physiological process is unique in this age group of patients. There are illnesses and conditions related to the changing of the physiological functions resulting from an advancement in age.

During the performance of physical examination, the nurse must equally avoid prolonged exposure of the patients as the geriatric patients easily loose head and are prone to hypothermia (Rosen & Reuben, 2011). Due to the multiplicity of conditions experienced by the geriatric patients, a thorough health history is essential in understanding the nature of the condition. In certain instances when the elderly cannot clearly express the condition, interviewing of the family members is essential in helping to understand the conditions.

Additionally, during the assessment, the elderly must be treated with caution since these groups of people are accustomed to falls. The patients’ assessment should be done in an environment that is spacious enough but has for support appliances that will prevent the fall of the patients (Kenis et al., 2013).ReferencesElsawy, B., & Higgins, K. E. (2011). The geriatric assessment. American Family Physician, 83, 48–56. Kenis, C., Bron, D., Libert, Y., Decoster, L., Van Puyvelde, K., Scalliet, P.

, … Wildiers, H. (2013). Relevance of a systematic geriatric screening and assessment in older patients with cancer: results of a prospective multicentric study. Annals of Oncology : Official Journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology / ESMO, 24, 1306–12. Rosen, S. L., & Reuben, D. B. (2011). Geriatric assessment tools. The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine, New York, 78, 489–97.