Advanced Physical/Health Assessment across the Lifespan for Family Nurse Practitioners

This graduate level course provides the theoretical and clinical foundation for advanced comprehensive assessment of the health status of individuals and families across the lifespan. Building on undergraduate preparation, principles of complex interviewing and history-taking, advanced physical assessment skills, diagnostic reasoning, psychosocial, cultural, developmental and environmental assessments are presented. Didactic, clinical laboratory and clinical experiences emphasize techniques for discrimination and analysis of common normal and abnormal findings, as well as methods for presentation and documentation of findings. Theoretical contexts of health promotion are discussed and applied to clinical findings.