Week 2 Wellness Assessment: Reply to my classmate

Week 2 Wellness Assessment

Classmate:

Being that I work on the unit, having a patient like this is not our usual patient population. However during the simulation asking questions as it pertains to her overall health went well. Such as asking about past medical history, social history, asking if the patient smoked and if so how much, asking about allergies, skin conditions, medications being taken at home, whether over the counter or prescribed, home environment  and even asking if the patient had any current health issues. I do believe the scenario was realistic, while its not often seen where I work. I have also been that patient who needed a physical due to not having a Primary care provider. It was more realistic when I asked about her sexual history and she got a bit annoyed asking why am I asking that. This is very common for patients to ask when bombarded by all these questions. So I've learned to always explain the relevance when asking questions and making sure that they understand.

While doing the scenario I did get a bit carried away with asking questions as I thought it had some relevance to the situation. If given the opportunity to care for Ms. Gonzalez again or anyone similar to her I would dive more into her home life, such as asking if she had help and support at home.  During the physical assessment I would listen to her abdominal fields longer, assess her nose not just externally but internally as well. A feedback that I was surprised by was hearing 30 bowel sounds per minute, while I was always taught to listen for bowel sounds (Hypo/Hyper/Absent) I don't think I was ever given a number on how much bowel sounds should be heard in a minute, so I thought that was very interesting.

I learned that even though most of us are so accustomed to doing Focused assessment, a Good comprehensive assessment will always provide the information needed to thoroughly care for a patient. I will be asking more questions about my patient's home life, and educating more about having regular check-ups, to not just treat issues when they arrive but to also prevent them from happening. The simulation reinforced how much Education plays such a vital role, in this scenario the patient has had UTIs in the past, but was this patient ever Educated on how to properly treat UTIs? Or how to prevent them from happening so frequently? Or Educated on the complication that could result if her UTIs go untreated? I was never really a fan of simulations, due to them not being realistic but this came pretty close.