Introduction

This Open Educational Resource was developed to support the theoretical basis for assessing the health status of individuals with an emphasis on cultural diversity and lifespan considerations within the context of providing safe and holistic nursing care for the College of DuPage, Nursing Program’s NURSI 1140 Course.  Additionally, the application of cognitive, psychomotor, communication and critical thinking skills will be integrated in these readings and resources in conducting comprehensive and focused physical assessment from subjective and objective data, starting with the health history.  Finally, utilizing the nursing process to organize data, normal/abnormal findings will be supported through effective documented and verbal communication approaches as detailed in the NURSI 1140 course description, learning objectives and outcomes.