Chapter 2 – Inclusive Approaches to Health Assessment
Key Takeaways
- Health assessments require both objective knowledge (knowledge obtained through assessment techniques and skills) and subjective knowledge (knowledge about the unique needs and experiences of clients, obtained through empathetic and relational skills).
- Illness experiences are informed by our social experiences. They are unique, so a one-size-fits-all model of care will not suit all clients.
- An inclusive health assessment involves embracing all aspects of the client’s humanity and being mindful and attentive to any personal and unconscious biases that may negatively influence your views and interactions with the client.
- Inclusive health assessments require that you understand what it is to be human and what it means to be oppressed.
- Without understanding the social roots of illness, it is easy to blame clients for their illness outcomes, or even perpetuate injustice in how a client is treated, and in differential practices of health assessments across clients.
- Nurses should operate from positions of cultural sensitivity, cultural competence, cultural humility, and cultural safety; they have an overarching professional responsibility to anti-oppressive practices.
