Nursing Head to Toe Assessment

The most important thing you can do as a nurse is perform a thorough nursing head to toe assessment of your patient.  In the ICU we are required to do full head to toe assessments at least every four hours.  You as a nurse can pick up on the smallest changes in heart rate, blood pressure, among other changes.  You are the advocate for the patient so be sure to learn how to perform your assessments well and come up with a standard assessment you do on every patient.  I have listed below how I do my head to toe assessments as well as different pathophysiology that you may see in each organ system.