Nursing Career: Three Most Common Assessment Tools

There are several assessment tools nurses use in in the field to assess geriatrics along with the rest of the population. Three most common assessment tools are, the pain scale, fall risk scale, and the depression scale.

To provide the best care for their elderly patients, nurses must incorporate pain assessment into their daily care of patients. Pain assessment is a key aspect of the nurse’s role. There are many factors to consider when assessing patients’ pain such as if they are verbal or non-verbal, what language they speak, their age and their cultural background. There are many tools that a nurse can use to assess a patient’s pain but one of the most common tools is the 0-10 scale. This tool can be asked verbally by asking what their pain level is on a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain they have ever had. You may also use this tool in a visual manner with faces that correlate to the numbers. 0 being a happy face and 10 being a very sad face. Elderly patients from diverse cultural backgrounds are increasing in long term care facilities so it is important to have a 0 – 10 pain scale written in their native language. Some patients are stoic and do not express their pain as much as other people so it is important to understand that a 0 – 10 pain scale might not always be sufficient and could be combined with observing any physical signs that the patient might be in pain such as facial expressions and guarding. Nurses must have a good base of knowledge and attitude towards pain and always take what the patient reports their pain scale to be as truth. If the patient does report pain it would be important to treat the pain or if it is a new occurrence to follow this assessment up with another val...

... middle of paper ...

...chronic illnesses which makes people more at risk for falling. Unfortunately falls are very common in the elderly which makes the fall risk tool very important. Last but not least the depression scale is used a lot in the elderly because depression is a very common diagnosis. Elderly lose their loved ones, they have decreased social interactions, etc. By using these assessment tools they will make a person a better, accurate nurse.

Works Cited

Meiner, S. E. (2011). Gerontologic Nursing (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.

Potter, RN, MSN, PhD, FAAN, P. A., Perry, RN, EdD, FAAN, A. G., Stockert, RN, BSN, MS, PhD, P. A., & Hall, RN, BSN, MS, PhD, CNE, A. M. (2013). Fundamentals of Nursing (8th ed., pp. 969-975). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.

Wilson, Susan. (2009). Health Assessment for Nursing Practice (5th ed., pp. 520-521). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.