Hello all! Today I will be sharing my tips and tricks for Health Assessment! This course is very typical for most first-semester nursing students. In my program the Health Assessment course consists of a lecture portion directly followed with lab. I will discuss both in this post! Keep reading if you are looking for some insight into Health Assessment.

 

Before lecture

• Read assigned readings & take brief notes.

For Health Assessment, I made sure to complete the readings, they never were too long and I found them straight to the point. Another plus was that oftentimes the readings overlapped with my Foundations readings!

• Complete ATI assignments.

Each week, we had assigned ATI readings and videos to watch; these would help prepare us for the lab portion of the class. I would complete these and type out notes/outlines while completing the readings. I would then print these out and bring them to lab with me.

Side note: I really would recommend doing this for all of your online ATI assignments, this will help you out when it is time to study for the proctored exam.

During lecture/lab

• Pay attention.

Active listening and note-taking is vital for every lecture. This goes for every single class. Remain attentive, stay off your device and jot down a few notes. You will tend to remember what your instructor said if you are actually listening.

During lab, I would take notes on my printed out ATI outlines, I had typed up the week before. Most of the time, I did not have to take many notes on this because the outlines I had made were sufficient. During lab, we would actually practice an assessment for that system on our lab partners, which required paperwork of its own to help us learn to  document. Make sure you fill this out if you have to! It can be a great tool when going over basic documentation.

After lecture/lab

• Review content/notes

If you read my Pharmacology post, you can see a pattern here. I make sure to go over my notes once I return to my room. Of course, I give myself about an hour to an hour and a half to eat and relax a bit, but then I make sure to review the information. This ensures I have already seen the content three times (before class, during lecture/lab, after lecture/lab)!

• Take weekly quiz.

After viewing my notes/lecture/lab, I will take the weekly quiz. This allows me to get it out of the way since I would have several other quizzes to prepare for. It was also an optimal time because the content was still relatively fresh on my mind.

Studying for exams

• Break it up.

If you read my Pharmacology post, or any study tips post. This is key to avoiding feeling overwhelmed and giving yourself enough time to master the content. This method is also great, because in nursing school you may have three plus exams in a week.

• Practice!

At my school, our Sim lab is open from the morning until the afternoon. It is strongly encouraged for us to come in and practice with our lab partners/classmates. This is especially helpful for when you have check-offs. Aside from practicing on your classmates, use your family and friends if you can! Get used to hearing the “normal”, so in clinical you can detect and abnormal sound.

• Know what you are assessing.

Please, for the love of all that is good, know your basic anatomy and its location in the human body as well as its function. You need to know what you are assessing!

 

That is my advice for passing Health Assessment! Do you have any advice for passing Health Assessment?

Anna