Physical Assessment Competence of Nursing Students: A Literature Review

Abstract

Background and Aim: Physical assessment is an integral part of nursing and a key learning outcome in nurse education programs. Some nursing students, however, feel inadequately trained to perform physical assessment effectively. This literature review surveys and evaluates current research findings on the training of nursing students in physical assessment and their confidence and competence in performing this skill. Methods: In four electronic databases—CINAHL (1) Med- line (2), ProQuest-Nursing and Allied Health Database (3), and PubMed (4) —Boolean operators and nested key terms were used to craft strings for database searches. Broad search criteria were employed to ensure that all relevant articles were included. Titles were hand-searched based on the reference lists of the full texts of reviewed literature. The data was extracted from January 2019 to March 2019. Results: Three major topics were derived from a synthesis of the findings: (a) barriers in performing physical assessment, (b) assessment tools, (c)approaches towards the improvement of physical assessment competence. Conclusion: Physical assessment competence is fundamental to the delivery of nursing care. Evaluation and measurement of physical assessment competence is essential to determine and foster the skills of nurses in training, and evaluation and feedback are necessary to take proper corrective action for improvement. Assessment includes identifying barriers to arrive at action plans to eliminate them. Action plans can focus on good practice environments, improvement of curriculum, trainings and simulations, mentoring, emphasis on safety, and improving non-technical skills.

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