Physical assessment: implications for nurse educators and nursing practice.
OBJECTIVE
In New Zealand, the physical assessment of a patient has traditionally been the domain of the medical profession. As a country implementing advanced practice roles, with an expectation that both nurse practitioners and registered nurses will use physical assessment skills, the relevancy of physical assessment for each scope of practice has currency. The aim of this literature review was to discover what could be learnt from the experiences of Western countries that already incorporate physical assessment skills into nurses' health assessment.


RESULTS
Nurses in the USA, and more recently Canada and Australia, readily incorporate physical assessment skills into their nursing practice as a component of health assessment. The international literature identified that any change to the nurse's role in health assessment, to include physical assessment skills, requires strategies that involve the regulatory, educational and practice components of nursing.


CONCLUSIONS
Nurses and other health professionals must perceive that this role expansion will improve health outcomes for the diverse populations accessing health care. Teaching physical assessment skills within a holistic health model will enable nurses to contribute a more comprehensive health assessment to the planning and monitoring of people's health care.
Lesa
R
R
School of Nursing, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand. raewyn@tekotago.ac.nz
Dixon
A
A
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005181:Faculty, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006694:Holistic Health; D006801:Humans; D008008:Licensure, Nursing; D017145:Models, Educational; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009520:New Zealand; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009736:Nursing Process / Q000458:organization & administration; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000458:organization & administration; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000451:nursing*; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D012107:Research Design; D020377:Self Efficacy