Medical Assessment Tools

Proper patient care is essential and is based on the healthcare professional's ability to accurately assess both the scene and the patient for any potential life-threatening situation. In providing proper patient care, a healthcare professional will use all the skills they learned to determine the root cause of the situation. This includes using several medical assessment tools.

Patient Assessment

• One of the most important medical assessment tools you will need is not an actual "tool" at all. It's several skills wrapped into one -- patient assessment. It refers to what a healthcare professional does upon first meeting a patient. Among the skills used are: figuring out what caused the patient's injury or illness, performing an initial assessment, determining the patient's level of consciousness, maintaining a proper airway, determining proper body circulation, performing a detailed physical exam, taking vital signs and obtaining a proper medical history.

Tools Used

• When performing some of the above mentioned tasks, you will need actual medical assessment tools. Among such tools are a stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, pen light and a thermometer.

Stethoscope and BP Cuff

• A stethoscope and blood pressure (BP) cuff are used simultaneously when obtaining a blood pressure on a patient. According to Drugs.com, a blood pressure is "The force or pressure that carries blood to all parts of the body." A blood pressure reading, then, is the pressure that the blood puts on the arteries as it moves through. A normal reading is typically 120/80. The 120 reflects the systolic number and the 80 reflects the diastolic number.

Pen Light

• A pen light is simply a handheld device that is just slightly larger in diameter than a pen. When used, it emits a light that can be used to look into a patient's eyes to determine the level of reactivity of the eyes.

Thermometer

• In a healthcare setting, medical professionals typically use either an ear digital thermometer or an oral thermometer with disposable probe covers.

Other Tools

• Capillary refill is defined as a quick and simple test performed to the nail bed to determine proper blood flow to the tissues. Slight pressure is placed on a nail bed until it turns white (termed blanching), then pressure is removed. Normal results should return blood flow to the nail bed immediately.