#90: Assess These Five Things with Every Patient Interaction

When you think about a nurse’s superpowers, you might picture someone performing CPR or rushing to open the airway of a patient in respiratory arrest. But the nurse’s real superpower is his or her ability to assess. It’s the watchful awareness of the nurse that catches subtle changes in patient condition that enable the team to intervene BEFORE the unthinkable happens. 

In this podcast episode, I’m going to talk with you about the importance of those routine interactions and how they can provide you with a wealth of data about your patients. By assessing these five things with every patient contact, you can catch changes in patient condition even before your next head-to-toe assessment is due. When you develop a habit of using every patient interaction as an opportunity to assess, you become hypervigilant about your patient and begin to develop those rockstar assessment skills.

Are you working hard to put all the pieces together for your care plans? A key component you may be overlooking is the important role your patient’s electrolyte levels play in their overall clinical picture. Go beyond simply memorizing normal reference ranges and grab the Straight A Nursing Electrolytes Bundle https://straightanursingstudent.com/study-guides/electrolytes-bundle/

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