American Nurses Association Scope And Standards Of Practice For Nursing

Health assessments are central to the work of nurses. As described by the American Nurses Association (ANA) Scope and Standards of Practice for Nursing, nurses as part of the nursing process are expected to collect comprehensive health data for Individuals, groups, or communities. The data is collected in a holistic manner, through the use of evidence based tools and techniques (ANA, 2010, p.32). Health assessment differ depending on the scope and the focus. An individual health assessment will focus on the person and the specific health concern, while a community assessment will take into consideration the health of the entire community and the unique demographics.
A community health needs assessment is very time consuming and detailed method to acquire data regarding the health of a community. This

Individual health assessments include: interpersonal interaction with the patient, collecting data, physical assessment, and documentation. The process of this data collection and health assessment for the individual patient has changed dramatically with the introduction of technology. Telemedicine introduces a new type of health assessment where care is readily available even in the most rural areas. However, the nurse needs to develop a new assessment skill set that is more visual and less tactile (Nagel, Pomerleau, & Penner, 2013). The increased use of electronic health records has nurses documenting an insurmountable about of data about patient assessments. This data has the potential to be extremely valuable to define the work nurses do and impact on patient outcomes. The ability to measure nursing practice through the use of data and outcomes, adds value to the nursing profession. The collection of data in an EHR allows nursing researchers to qualify the value of nursing and the nurse’s impact on patient outcomes and quality (OʼBrien, Weaver, Settergren, Hook, & Ivory,