Evaluation And Assessment: Fill & Download for Free

I once read a document that emphasized the importance of proper evaluation and appraisal. You know - checking things out, sizing them up.“Assess” was spelled “asses”.

One night I came to work, and as I stepped off the elevator, I was overcome with the scent of gastrointestinal blood. The elevator was 40 feet away from the ICU in which I worked, but the odor was unmistakable. I will state now that I have always had an incredibly sharp sense of smell. Not really a good superpower for someone likely to smell all sorts of nauseating odors during the course of a 12 hour shift, but there you have it.I entered the ICU and asked who the GI Bleeder was. I was simply met with blank stares. The charge nurse informed me there was no one in the unit with gastrointestinal bleeding.I was surprised, yet relieved, because a patient bleeding from the gastrointestinal system is a very unstable patient, indeed.I received my assignment and entered each room to evaluate and assess each patient. I smelled blood when I entered one room. However, the patient had no history of gastrointestinal bleeding, and other than the odor—had no signs nor symptoms. I immediately ordered two units of blood typed and crossmatched. I reasoned that if the doctor could smell what I had smelled, he would do the same.At two in the morning, with no warning, this patient began vomiting bright red blood. His heart rate raced and his blood pressure dropped precipitously low. I calmly asked for the blood I had ordered earlier, and all was soon well. By morning, the gastroscopic studies had been completed, the bleeding areas cauterized, and the patient was once again stable. Just another routine night in the ICU.So my “gut feeling” had helped to stabilize a patient, although he had never had such a symptom to anyone’s medical knowledge, in the past.It was not really so amazing, as a high estrogen level tends to create a much more sensitive nose. Women have higher estrogen levels than men, and at certain times of the month, have particularly high estrogen levels. Thus, the ability to “smell out” trouble before it becomes life-threatening. Therefore, it was not so much my gut, as my nose that safeguarded that patient that night.

I like this graphic as it shows that they overlap at various points, so can be confusing when used in a sentence. Once something is final/done and over, there is little distinction between the two and the assessment then becomes part of the evaluation, while an evaluation tries to make a judgement of the value not just feedback for improving the process.