Cultural, Spiritual And Psychosocial Health Assessment Essay

Cultural, Spiritual And Psychosocial Health Assessment - Essay Example This essay discusses that cultural, spiritual and psychosocial assessment of a patient occurs after the health assessment where the nurse determines the possible causes of the patient’s condition. If the situation is an emergency, little or no social assessment of the patient is carried out as the health assessment is always the first priority of the nurse and the doctors. During a health assessment, asking the patient of their past medical condition is the first thing that nurses must do so as to find any possibilities of a recurrent health condition or relation of the current illness to the previous ones. The patient’s health is more important than their background or beliefs. An example is pain assessment where the nurse determines the location and amount of pain then he or she can prescribe pain drugs. After treating an urgent condition, the nurses then conduct the other parts of their assessment which now includes the cultural, spiritual and psychosocial aspects. T his only occurs after the patient is stable to conduct a conversation.This paper highlights that  the assessment of the patients’ health and general condition involves a number of questions. The answers given by the patient give the nurses a clear insight of the life of their patient and this enables them help them in any way possible to improve not only their health status but also their well being. Each question that a nurse poses to their patient must have boundaries and must be in line with the code of ethics of a nurse.... However, the main tools that nurses must put in use are good virtues and a sense of understanding of the patient. Virtues that give the patient comfort and trust when conversing with the nurse are tools used to guide through the assessment. A cultural assessment on a patient is mainly carried out through a series of questions and this may involve both the patient and the family so as to get a clear approach during the patients care. A nurse should have special guesses of the background of their patent so as to develop a sense of reasoning with the patient and to avoid getting shocked while the patient answers questions. The first question involving culture must be on if the patient has used any form of traditional treatment before and if the patient is comfortable with the whole treatment given to them. This question allows the nurses and the doctors to conduct their work without any conflict from the patient regarding some forms of treatment. For instance asking a patient if he or s he is okay with surgery before hand is important as some culture do not permit any surgery. (Giger, & Davidhizar, 2004) Moreover, spiritual assessment is a vital part of any health assessment of a patient. This form of assessment is mostly observed and conducted in patients who have serious illnesses especially those with no definite cure or to patients who have gone through traumatizing experiences that landed them in hospital. The purpose spiritual assessment serves is to provide the nurse with a person who they can relate and pour their troubles and thoughts to. Spiritual assessment must involve physical presence of the nurse and a form of good communication where the patient can discuss deep issues and get relief through the nurse.