NSE 13A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Palpation, The Strokes, Mental Status Examination
26 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Chapter 9 assessment techniques and the clinical setting. Sight, smell, touch and hearing are used during your physical assessment. Ippa: starts off with a bigger picture and then it becomes more and more tailored to technique. Inspection is concentrated watching where you look at the patient as a whole and then each body system. Use the other side of the patient"s body as a control to compare as both sides are nearly symmetrical. Inspection requires good lighting, adequate exposure and the occasional use of certain instruments: look at hands for colour, deformities and symmetry in each hand; nail beds are pink, face: edema around the eyes (swelling) symmetry in the face. Palpation involves your sense of touch at the points on inspection to assess texture, temperature, organ location and size, pain, tenderness, lumps, swelling. Percussion is tapping the person"s skin with short, sharp strokes to assess underlying structures.
