Pocket Guide to Gerontologic Assessment

The third edition of POCKET GUIDE TO GERONTOLOGIC NURSING is designed to serve as a practical reference for nurses assessing the health status of older adults in a variety of traditional and nontraditional settings. This book guides the nurse in the performance of a basic, comprehensive health assessment that covers all body systems. Well-organized, it provides a quick, ready reference when conducting either a focused assessment related to a specific body system or a complete health assessment. New to this edition is a chapter on nutritional assessment, a section identifying drugs that may influence assessment of the older client, sample documentation boxes at the end of each body system chapter that show how to record the collected subjective and objective data in an organized format, and a section on foot assessment. A new appendix includes a sample write-up of a complete history and physical examination.

* Presents normal, variations of normal, and deviations from normal findings to help the nurse make accurate assessments. * Includes functional, cognitive, affective, and social assessment screening tools to augment traditional health assessment tools. * Offers a brief overview of anatomy and physiology and age-related changes to identify unique differences of the older adult population. * Features Client Teaching boxes to provide practical advice on health promotion and illness prevention. * Includes a sample health history format that is comprehensive and adaptable to any client population and setting. * Presents an assessment approach that maintains a nursing focus that is adaptable to any setting and useful at any point in the continuum of care. * Emphasizes aged-specific and aged-appropriate assessment techniques throughout the book. * Makes generous use of tables and boxes to provide quick reference of key information. * Presents physical examination in a two-column format to assist the nurse in performing assessment in an orderly, head-to-toe manner. * Uses a consistent format and practical use of second color to make information easy to find and use. * Includes numerous detailed illustrations to highlight assessment techniques. * Serves both the novice nurse learning the skills of older adult health assessment and the experienced practitioner in a portable, easy-to-use reference.