Reflection On Head Toe Assessment

My first week of clinical went really well I spent the first day learning the work flow of the unit and practicing assessments with my nurse and learn about all the different disorders and surgeries of our patients. My nurse Ben was really great he was very knowledgeable and through. I was luck enough to meet my patient the day before and establish a good rapport with her while helping Ben take care of her. She was a 52-year-old patient who had a history of multiple surgeries and current medication conditions. I luck in being able to learn from her about her past surgeries and current medical conditions. The reason for her current visit was to have ileorectostomy. She has had a history of constipation and irritable bowel syndrome that had been exasperated to the point where her bowel was so inflamed form rubbing against each other that it developed scar tissue. One of the main assessments and interventions I performed while taking care of her was to do an initial head toe assessment at the beginning of my …show more content…
In the case of my patient during her first assessment she was doing good on pain control and had numbness from below her diaphragm on the left side to her hip. Upon follow up assessment four hours later, she was no longer numb on her left side and had uncontrolled pain once again. Having this experience with my patient really drove home the point how important it is to do initial assessments and how important is to know how to perform dermatome assessment with a ice in a glove through out your shift. Along with pain management and developing a good rapport with your patients that facilities better patient care.My goal for this coming week is to pick a patient that I can do more focused assessments on and to practice giving injections and hanging piggy