This book was designed with student nurses in mind. It is intended to serve as a tool to provide practice, enhance learning, and increase the propensity for retention and application of basic concepts of health and physical assessment. The book can be used by early-career nursing students who have just begun to cover its concepts as well as by pre-licensure exam students who may benefit from reiteration and reinforcement of concepts learned early on in nursing school--and from practicing applying these concepts to more complex scenarios.

The book is divided into 13 chapters, all of which are geared toward a particular subject matter. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the concept of an unfolding case study and the nursing process. Chapter 3 provides an in-depth guide to answering NCLEX-style questions. There are several NCLEX-style questions broken down and analyzed within this chapter and several practice questions for your benefit. The remainder of the chapters are subject-based and cover assessment of the major body systems in a systematic and learner-friendly way. Readers will notice that while each chapter covers different content matter, the chapters are structured in similar ways so the reader can begin to develop a feel for and familiarity with an unfolding case study analysis.

Goals for the book are:

*Increased comfort level and confidence in analyzing patient scenarios in regards to basic health assessment
*A more in-depth knowledge of basic health assessment concepts
*Ample chances to practice applying concepts learned in your health assessment course to solidify the information you have learned
*Increased confidence in answering NCLEX-style questions
*Increased knowledge, skill levels, and confidence in assessing and managing patients with a variety of healthcare needs

The chapters of the book do not have to be completed in any particular order, as they are each individualized to certain subject matter categories. The authors recommend you use these unfolding case studies as a means of evaluating the ability to think critically and apply the concepts learned in health assessment classes to realistic patient scenarios. The book can be used as a study tool during health assessment classes, a health assessment refresher tool during other classes, and an NCLEX study tool after finishing nursing school.