Utilizing Health Assessment Kits for Comprehensive Patient Evaluation

Health assessment kits allow medical professionals to perform comprehensive health evaluations on patients. The typical health assessment kit contains an assortment of different tools and accessories to assess a patient’s current health status and to understand the potential health risks they face if certain underlying conditions are detected.

Medical students can also use specialized health assessment kits to learn how to perform similar health assessments on patients. These kits, often considered an essential part of comprehensive nursing supplies, contain all the same tools and accessories that actual medical professionals use, making them the perfect training kits for students to learn about conducting evaluations.

Here are the top 11 tools found in a health assessment kit:

1) Blood Pressure Cuff

The blood pressure cuff, otherwise known as a sphygmomanometer, measures a patient’s blood pressure. Medical and nursing students will need to become very familiar with it because it is a critical health evaluation tool used in numerous medical settings.

Students must learn how to administer precise blood pressure readings. They cannot be a little bit off in their readings because it could jeopardize the health and safety of the patients. Accurate readings are how students can successfully learn to diagnose specific cardiovascular health conditions like hypertension.

2) Reusable Penlight

Penlights are used to conduct all kinds of health evaluations, such as eye, ear, and oral examinations. They shine a bright, narrow light to induce pupil reactions in the eyes and generate visibility in the ear canal and mouth. Students will learn to detect and diagnose potential health conditions affecting those areas.

3) EMT Shears

EMT shears are often seen in emergency room settings. They are heavy-duty scissors used by medical professionals to quickly cut off a patient’s clothes after they have been brought into the emergency room with severe injuries and wounds. The shears can also be used to cut bandages and medical tape without risking harm to the patient’s skin tissues. Students need substantial practice in performing these actions.

4) Reflex Hammer

Doctors use the reflex hammer to assess patients' neurological functions. It targets the reflexes of a patient’s deep tendons to diagnose a potential condition in their peripheral or central nervous system. Patients who have suffered strokes or nerve disorders can often be diagnosed with the assistance of the reflex hammer.

5) Tuning Fork

The tuning fork can help medical students learn to diagnose and assess hearing problems, sensory dysfunctions, joint issues, and bone fractures. It is a powerful yet simple tool for assessing a patient’s musculoskeletal and neurological health, and medical students training in these specialized areas will need to become familiar with it. 

6) Stethoscope

The stethoscope is used to monitor a patient’s heart rate. The student puts the end of the device over the patient’s heart to count the number of heartbeats and listen for other unusual sounds, especially from the lungs. Generally, the stethoscope is handy for detecting preliminary heart conditions before they worsen.

7) Glucometer

The glucometer is an instrument that measures and monitors the blood glucose levels of patients, especially those who are diabetic and suffer from hypoglycemia. Students will encounter many patients in their professional lives who suffer from either too much or too little glucose in the blood. Either way, the glucometer will allow them to detect these glucose levels and then recommend the best treatment.

8) Otoscope

The otoscope is a common instrument found in most doctor’s offices. Every medical student should become familiar with the otoscope because it is essential in conducting ear examinations on patients. The otoscope can help students learn how to assess ear conditions by checking for signs of wax build-up, infections, or other kinds of imperfections.

9) Measuring Tape

A measuring tape may seem like an unusual device for a health assessment kit, but it can come in quite handy for assessing the physical health of obese and overweight patients. Students can use the measuring tape to learn how to measure their patients' waist and limb sizes. Knowing these sizes can help students diagnose weight-related health issues in their patients.

10) Pulse Oximeter

The pulse oximeter measures the levels of oxygen in a patient’s red blood cells. It can tell you how much oxygen is being sent to the most essential parts of the body, such as the legs, arms, and heart. Based on the results of the oxygen saturation tests, students can practice diagnosing respiratory illnesses and other conditions related to respiratory function.

11) Ophthalmoscope

The ophthalmoscope is an instrument used to detect eye diseases and conditions, such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. Students don’t necessarily need to become eye doctors to learn and appreciate the use of an ophthalmoscope. Simply learning to assess eye health can help students detect early signs of eye disease in their patients.

Comprehensive Patient Evaluations

Think of health assessment kits as diagnostic instrument kits. Almost every tool in a health assessment kit allows students and medical professionals to detect or diagnose specific health problems. All medical and nursing students should become familiar with these instruments, even if they won’t use all of them in their particular area of medicine.

Of course, not all health assessment kits will have the tools you need to diagnose every type of health condition. That is why you need to research the various health assessment kits available to see what kind of tools they have in them. Based on your findings, you can determine which ones are suitable for your medical students and the lessons you wish to teach them.

Build Your Health Assessment Kits Today

You can visit Pristine Medical to find both prepackaged health assessment kits and several individual medical tools that you can use to build your kits. If the prepackaged kits don’t have everything you want, you can always order additional tools and accessories as needed. Pristine Medical has it all.