Effective Medical Assessment Tools for Patient Care

Proper patient care is essential and is based on the healthcare professional's ability to accurately assess both the scene and the patient for any potential life-threatening situation. In providing proper patient care, a healthcare professional will use all the skills they learned to determine the root cause of the situation. This includes using several medical assessment tools.

Patient Assessment

• One of the most important medical assessment tools you will need is not an actual "tool" at all. It's several skills wrapped into one -- patient assessment. It refers to what a healthcare professional does upon first meeting a patient. Among the skills used are: figuring out what caused the patient's injury or illness, performing an initial assessment, determining the patient's level of consciousness, maintaining a proper airway, determining proper body circulation, performing a detailed physical exam, taking vital signs and obtaining a proper medical history.

Tools Used

• When performing some of the above mentioned tasks, you will need actual medical assessment tools. Among such tools are a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, pen light and a thermometer.

Stethoscope and BP Cuff

• A stethoscope and blood pressure (BP) cuff are used simultaneously when obtaining a blood pressure on a patient. According to Drugs.com, a blood pressure is "The force or pressure that carries blood to all parts of the body." A blood pressure reading, then, is the pressure that the blood puts on the arteries as it moves through. A normal reading is typically 120/80. The 120 reflects the systolic number and the 80 reflects the diastolic number.

Pen Light

• A pen light is simply a handheld device that is just slightly larger in diameter than a pen. When used, it emits a light that can be used to look into a patient's eyes to determine the level of reactivity of the eyes.

Thermometer

• In a healthcare setting, medical professionals typically use either an ear digital thermometer or an oral thermometer with disposable probe covers.

Other Tools

• Capillary refill is defined as a quick and simple test performed to the nail bed to determine proper blood flow to the tissues. Slight pressure is placed on a nail bed until it turns white (termed blanching), then pressure is removed. Normal results should return blood flow to the nail bed immediately.