Assessment Tools Analysis The nursing process is the framework to providing nursing care Assessment is the first step in the nursing process To ensure a holistic view of the patient is obtained an assessment of the client s entire well being must be done Using Watson s theory of caring along with assessment tools nurses can ensure that a holistic approach for caring for clients is maintained Assessment tools are instruments used by nurses to assist them with the assessment of a patient to determine nursing diagnosis so that a plan of care can be designed specifically for the patient More important nurses utilized assessment tools to assess and evaluate patients in different stages and states of wellness illness stress and life Therefore utilization of assessment tools are excellent instruments to assist nurses with improving patient care There are assortments of assessment instruments frequently used today such as vital signs physical and social examination Braden Scale Glascow Coma scale and pain scales This paper attempt to examine three assessment tools and how they enhance the nursing process and the quality of care patients receive from nurses Also this paper will inspect the cost validity and ease of use of each assessment tool as well as the population the tool was intended for Last the discussed tools will be applied to the J Riley Family from The Neighborhood Jean Watson s Theory of Caring is the blueprint nurses need to care for their patients coworkers and themselves within their professional practice Watson s theory of caring is based on 10 caritas derived from Latin for charity or altruistic love to support nurses in developing a deep trusting relationship with their clients and to educate them how to make sound but caring and creative decisions in their professional lives AACN 2010 The carative factors are nursing interventions undertaken with the full participation of the nurse and the patient Watson lists 10 carative factors 1 humanistic altruistic system of values 2 faith hope 3 sensitivity to self and others 4 helping trusting human care relationship 5 expressing positive and negative feelings 6 creative problem solving caring process 7 transpersonal teaching learning 8 supportive protective and or corrective mental physical societal and spiritual environment 9 human needs assistance and 10 existential phenomenological spiritual forces Watson 2007 The first tool being analyzed is the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale DAS was designed to measure the intensity of dysfunctional attitudes a hallmark feature of depression de Graaf Roelofs Huibers 2009 The items enclosed on the DAS are supported on Beck s cognitive therapy model de Graaf Roelofs Huibers 2009 The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale originally consisted of 100 items Now the DAS consists of 40 items and uses a 7 point Likert scale for analysis de Graaf Roelofs Huibers 2009 A high score is indicative of an individual with various dysfunctional attitudes The DAS has excellent concurrent validity significantly correlating with several other measures of depression including the Beck Depression Inventory BDI The DAS also significantly distinguishes between groups diagnosed as depressed or not depressed on the BDI The DAS was also found to be sensitive to change following clinical intervention with depressed outpatients Weissman 2006 The next tool to be reviewed is the Perceived Stress Scale The Perceived Stress Scale PSS is the most widely used psychological instrument for measuring the perception of stress Cohen 2010 PSS is a determinant of the extent to which conditions in one s life are deemed challenging Objects were intended to knock how irregular unmanageable and swarming respondents find their lives Cohen 2010 The PSS was planned for use in population with at least a middle school educational level The questions are uncomplicated and comprehendible and the reply choices are effortless to understand Cohen 2010 Also the questions are generalized and designed for any population The last tool to be evaluated is the Well Being Picture Scale The Well Being Picture is a instrument used to evaluate a sense of wellness in the largest possible range of populations as well as people who for any reason are not capable of understanding the English language or who may be too sick or weak to respond to lengthier more complicated measures The WPS is a shorter refined version of the 18 item Index of Field Energy Gueldner et al 2005 Each item on the scale has a numeric value of 1 to 7 with 70 being the maximum score possible and 10 being lowest score possible Reis Alligood 2008 p 10 Higher scores are indicative of a higher well being Tools are created to better assist the nurse to detect potential or existing problems so that nurses can better care for the patient Toofany 2007 These tools enhance the assessment phase of the nursing process and affect the quality of health care delivered by the nurse by enabling the nurse to analyze the data provided by the patients and design a plan of care tailored toward the patient s current level of wellness Also the tools are mostly used to determine if a patient is depressed or if depression is imminent The assessment tools also create a platform for communication between the nurse and the patient When reviewing the data from the assessment tools nurses can also ask more questions pertaining to the patient s health culture beliefs and how the patient perceives their own level of wellness The tools are geared to be used for any population In The Neighborhood vulnerable population assessment assignment these tools would be very useful in the venerable population of pregnant teens Pregnancy is one of the most intricate experiences an adolescent girl may face The experience can be embarrassing shameful and stressful More important teen pregnancy presents many challenges and it is a life changing experience for any young person to endure Pregnant teens are often ostracized because of their situation Because of the ostracizing feeling embarrassed and isolation any pregnant teen may be compelled to become depressed on top of the other challenges and obstacles they may endure Utilizing one of the assessment tools will be a good indicator of how well the teen is coping with all their stressors as well as educating the teens on signs and symptoms of the imminent depression When gathering the data of the patient assessment tools are utilized to define a better and more