Introduction to Health Assessment & Health Promotion Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental concepts in health assessment, cultural competence, levels of prevention, physical assessment techniques, the nursing process, EBP, and therapeutic communication.

Steps to Cultural Competence

The five steps required to achieve cultural competence: Self-Reflection, Patient Perspective, Healthcare System, Cultural Knowledge, and Adaptability.

Yin and Yang

A Chinese cultural concept viewing health and illness as a state of balance or imbalance of opposing forces.

FICA Tool

A framework for spiritual assessment assessing Faith, Importance/influence, Community, and Address/action.

Primary Prevention

Health promotion strategies focused on preventing disease before it happens by modifying existing risk factors or preventing the development of risk factors.

Secondary Prevention

Health promotion strategies focused on identifying disease before problems become serious through early detection, screening, and preventing progression.

Tertiary Prevention

Health promotion strategies focused on preventing complications of established disease.

Health Assessment

Gathering information about the health status of the patient, analyzing and synthesizing those data, making judgments about nursing interventions based on the findings, and evaluating patient care outcomes.

Inspection

Physical examination skill involving close, careful scrutiny first of the individual as a whole and then of each body system, requiring good lighting and adequate exposure.

Palpation

Physical examination skill applying the sense of touch to assess texture, temperature, moisture, organ location and size, swelling, rigidity, crepitation, lumps, or tenderness.

Percussion

Physical examination skill involving tapping the skin with short, sharp strokes to map organ location/size, signal density, detect superficial masses, or elicit pain/reflexes.

Auscultation

Physical examination skill involving listening to sounds produced by the body using a stethoscope to recognize normal, abnormal, and extra sounds.

Stethoscope Diaphragm and Bell

The dual heads of a stethoscope used during auscultation to channel body sounds and block out extraneous noise without magnifying sound.

Nursing Process

A five-component nonlinear framework consisting of Assessment, Diagnosis, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation.

Database

All available subjective and objective information collected about a patient during a health assessment.

Critical Thinking

Purposeful, outcome-directed thinking driven by patient, family, and community needs, based on the nursing process, evidence-based thinking, and scientific method.

Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)

A systematic approach to practice emphasizing the use of best evidence in combination with clinician experience, physical exam findings, and patient preferences and values.

Internal Factors (Communication)

Factors within the interviewer that affect communication skills, including liking others, empathy, active listening ability, and self-awareness.

External Factors (Communication)

Factors within the environment that affect communication skills, including privacy, limiting interruptions, physical setting comfort, attire, and note-taking.