While a safe and quiet environment is an essential part of performing a health assessment or examination, it goes without saying that the procedure of assessing an adult and a child are different. In the case of a child, parents act as the source of health history and concerns or problems with pre-schoolers, toddlers, and infants. While the younger school-aged children and older pre-schoolers are in a position to respond to the questions asked on their own, they may not clearly understand the vocabulary used for them to give a valid answer (Jarvies, 2012). Allow the caregiver to undress the children and hold them during the assessment. Address the child slowly and talk with the parents to give the child time to adjust and be comfortable with your presence. Begin with the non-evasive bits of the assessment and wait for the infant to sleep, if possible, to listen to lung and heart sounds. During the assessment period, allow the toddlers to hold a toy to help them remain at ease. Pre-schoolers should be allowed to do some things like undressing themselves if they can. Older school-aged children may decide whether they want their parents in the room or not. Make them feel comfortable by discussing their favorite movie and music. Except for toddlers, keep the patient’s genitalia covered until it is time to examine that part.
The assessment of adults is quite different compared to that of children because an adult is in a position to explain exactly what they are feeling and they can adequately respond to questions asked. In the case of an adult, the nurse simply has to explain what he is going to do and the adult can clarify what they have not understood (Jarvies, 2012). In the case of children, the nurse should consider providing different forms of education such as a coloring book appropriate for the age they are dealing with. They could also have the children and caregivers perform a return demonstration on the provided education if applicable.
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References
Jarvies, C. (2012). Physical Examination & the. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
