Introduction – MAIN

“Introduction to Health Assessment for the Nursing Professional” is an open educational resource (OER) created for undergraduate nursing students at the introductory level. Educators co-curated this resource in collaboration with students for students. This resource is a unique contribution to nursing education as content is theoretically informed by health promotion in the Canadian context and by an inclusive approach to health assessment that incorporates culturally-responsive techniques related to race/ethnicity, gender/sex/sexual orientation, body sizes/types, and ability/disability. It is the first health assessment resource that is informed by clinical judgement with the goal to facilitate students’ clinical decision making and ability to prioritize care by recognizing and acting on cues and signs of clinical deterioration. Interactive clinical judgement activities and formative assessments to evaluate a student’s learning are integrated throughout the resource. The integration of clinical judgement throughout this resource will support students’ capacity to enhance patient safety and equitable health outcomes as well as their success in writing national nursing exams to become licensed to work as a Nurse.

This book is best viewed via the online, Pressbooks format so that you can view the videos and interactive activities. However, a PDF format is made available.

Other nursing-related resources include:

Introduction to communication in nursing: link

Documentation in nursing: 1st Canadian edition: link

The scholarship of writing in nursing education: 1st Canadian edition: link

An introduction to anti-racism for the nursing professional: A focus on anti-black racism: link

Customization and Licensing

This textbook is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY NC) license except where otherwise noted, which means that you are free to:

SHARE – copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.

ADAPT – remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Feel free to use or modify this resource to suit your student and course needs with appropriate attribution.

UNDER THE FOLLOWING TERMS:

Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

No additional restrictions: You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notice: You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.

No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.

Funding

The specific funding for each chapter is noted at the start of each chapter section. The various chapters were funded by several grants including:

• Government of Ontario and through eCampusOntario’s support of the Virtual Learning Strategy. To learn more about the Virtual Learning Strategy visit: https://vls.ecampusontario.ca Views expressed in the publication are the views of Recipient and do not necessarily reflect those of the Province of Ontario or OOLC.
• Toronto Metropolitan University Libraries OER Grant.
• 2024-2025 Learning and Teaching Grant (LTG), Toronto Metropolitan University.
• eCampusOntario grant.
• Ryerson University Library OER grant.

Accessibility

This book was designed with accessibility in mind so that it can be accessed by the widest possible audience, including those who use assistive technologies. The web version of this book has been designed to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, level AA. While we aim to ensure that this book is as accessible as possible, we may not always get it right. There may be some supplementary third-party materials, or content not created by the authors of this book, which are not fully accessible.

If you are having problems accessing any content within the book, please contact: Dr. Jennifer Lapum at jlapum@torontomu.ca  Please let us know which page you are having difficulty with and include which browser, operating system, and assistive technology you are using.