Vital signs, height, and weight will be gathered during the initial encounter, providing objective data used to determine the patient’s current condition. During the nurse’s interactions with a patient, the nurse must be prepared to obtain vital data, assess the patient’s status, and communicate openly with the patient.

The patient’s appearance, behavior, age, gender, culture, growth, and development will be rapidly assessed when meeting the patient. From these initial observations, the nurse should be able to ascertain if the patient requires immediate intervention or will need the help of additional health care by being able to distinguish between normal and…

anthropometric measurement — noninvasive quantitative measurement of the human body; examples are height, weight, body mass index, body circumferences, and body fat measurements. vital sign — a marker of physiological homeostasis and essential in the analysis of monitoring patient progress; obtained by measuring body temperature, pulse, respiratory rate, and blood…. body mass index (BMI) — a value that is calculated from an individual’s height and weight to provide as measurement relative to the standards for ideal body weight. demi-span — the preferred method of obtaining height for patients unable to stand; the technique involves measuring the distance in centimeters from the middle of the sternal notch to the….