Health Assessment (NURS 1399)

Health Assessment is the integration of art and science of nursing. This course is designed to help a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) transition to a Registered Nurse (RN) practice with a solid understanding of knowledge, skills and abilities required to make strong patient focused clinical decisions at the bedside. The course begins with an overview of the complexity of health care by examining trends in the health of Canadians, the health care system and nursing practice. The Vancouver Community College (VCC) BScN Framework for Healing and Health Promotion will be introduced as a conceptual model to illustrate the role of the nurse in promoting health and healing while recognizing the unique values, beliefs, abilities, and needs of the person at the center of care and understanding the myriad of factors influencing health and health care. The course will connect accumulated knowledge from the LPN program related to anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, pharmacology, lab values and common diagnostic tests to health assessment. In addition, there will be a strong emphasis on reviewing and advancing physical, technological and communication skills to obtain objective and subjective data necessary for comprehensive health history and physical assessment. While a full health assessment is the focus, neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and genitourinary system will be highlighted to further understanding of how acute and chronic physiological changes in each system impact other systems. The clinical component of the course will be in an acute care setting.