The assessment that I will be focusing on is the first phase of the nursing process in the form of the initial assessment interview. The patient involved in the assessment is a 28 year old male who was admitted to a medical ward after an over dose. Within a few days it was established that the patient had mental health problems so he was referred to the community psychiatric nurse by his consultant and social worker, in order to continue his care in the community, after his discharge from the medical ward. I was introduced to the client, and his permission was given for me to use this assessment for the purpose of my study. The client in this assignment will be referred to as 'Fred'. This is a pseudonym, in order to protect his real identity and for the purpose of confidentiality, this is also a requirement of the Nursing and Midwifery Code of Professional Practice (2002).
A patient assessment according to Basford and Slevin (1995) is a carefully thought out approach to gathering information and analysis of the data' in simple terms, i.e. building a picture of the patient. This is especially so in this assessment as building a picture of the patient is essential in order to determine care.
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