Holistic Health Assessment

Holistic health assessment is central to operational and effective planning, execution and evaluation of the nursing care in health care setting. Nurses need to conduct a comprehensive and holistic assessment of the patients need (Wilson & Giddens, 2009). The health assessment should not only involve the assessment of the client’s vital signs, but it should also include mental, spiritual and cultural components of health.

As a nurse, developing a humanistic approach in health assessment will help the nurse in implementation of effective therapeutic care to the client. In addition, nurse need to integrate spiritual, cultural and mental approaches in order to philosophically reflect the beliefs, mental and spiritual state of the client (Jensen, 2011).  These varied clients’ needs defined in holistic health assessment will also require the professional nurses to commit themselves to the profession standards and practices in various health care contexts. Another plan for the nurses is having an ongoing education and training in order to enhance their intellectual, emotional, cultural, spiritual and mental development in order to ensure that they provide evidence based health care to the clients (Jensen, 2011). This plan will also ensure that nurses have a clear understanding of the clients’ spiritual, mental and cultural needs.      

The modern nurse has a multiple images that range from an angel of mercy to the sexual label that are usually portrayed in the literatures. Furthermore, nurses have been depicted as being inferior to the doctors who essentially lead all significant health care operations in the health care setting (Hallam, 2000). Although, the current nursing image has been acknowledged as an obvious problem, change is crucial and inevitable. In order to change the image of the nurses, the transition of nurses into administrative roles in the healthcare setting need to be championed. This is because nurses often possess extensive expertise in various administrative fields (Hallam, 2000). The aspects of nurse’s work need to be shared publicly for the nurse to acquire more public recognition. Nurse’s contribution in the healthcare provision also needs to be acknowledged by both public and professional organization. Furthermore, from academic view it is essential to establish a unified academic entry to the nursing profession since it will improve the image of the nurses (Hallam, 2000).