title: Mental Snapshots: Creating an Organized Plan for Health Assessment.
abstract: Beginning nursing students enter a rapidly moving and changing health care climate. Multiple stimulations can frighten and overwhelm the student's ability to find order of essential patient information. Students need to know how to collect, process, and manage important health data accurately and efficiently in the clinical setting. An integrative method for teaching nursing students to walk into the patient's room and construct a patterned sequence of focused assessments assists students in creating an organized plan for health assessment. The Mental Snapshots Method includes three components for health assessment: (a) sequential assessment steps of the patient; (b) color-coded visual images of the patient representing a bodily condition; and (c) focused assessment questions of primary health complaint(s) with a plan for nursing care. This mental snapshots strategy employs an information processing model of sensory, memory, and motor functioning, which enable students to maintain patient quality and safety.
authors.affiliation: Masters of Science in Nursing, Bachelors of Science in Nursing, Registered Nurse. 1996 Masters of Science in Nursing: Nursing Education and Advanced Practice Nurse: Clinical Nurse Specialist in Medical-Surgical Nursing, 1982 Bachelor of Science in Nursing.; Clinical Nursing Instructor at University of Maryland School of Nursing in Baltimore Maryland with Bachelors of Science in Nursing and Clinical Nurse Leader nursing students in Adult Health Nursing, Also, Emergency Room Nurse at Progressive Nursing Staffers, Springfield, Virginia.; Former Clinical Nursing Instructor at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore, MD, Former Assistant Professor at Anne Arundel Community College School of Nursing in Annapolis, MD.. Electronic address: Suefosbrook@comcast.net.
authors.forename: Susan Curro
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Fosbrook
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D000069469:Medical-Surgical Nursing / Q000193:education*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D013338:Students, Nursing
keywords: Health assessment; Mental snapshots; Quality & safety