Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction; Chapter 1: Person centred patient assessment and practice; Chapter 2: Understanding our role in patient assessment; Chapter 3: Making sense of patient information; Chapter 4: Assessment tools; Chapter 5: Nursing diagnosis; Chapter 6: Principles of care planning; Chapter 7: Nursing models and care planning; Chapter 8: Ethical aspects of patient assessment; Chapter 9: Community health needs assessment; Chapter 10: Patient assessment and decision making.

Nurses of the future need to accurately assess people of all ages, with varying mental and physical problems, across different settings and with changing health needs. This book introduces student nurses and novice practitioners to the assessment process enabling them to identify patient problems in order for solutions to be planned and implemented. The book presents the different stages of the assessment process, taking a holistic and person centred approach throughout. It encourages critical thinking and urges students to consider the social, cultural, psychological and environmental factors as well as the physical symptoms that may be present when making assessments. Key features: All chapters updated and mapped to the 2018 NMC Standards, detailed case studies and scenarios demonstrating practical application of key theory, introduces clinical decision-making within assessment, activities help build critical thinking, independent learning and other transferable graduate skills.