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Name __________________________________________________________ Date ____________________________________
Course _________________________________________________________ Year ____________________________________
Instructor/examiner _ ____________________________________________ Position _ _______________________________
Copyright © 2014 by Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Checklists for Clinical Nursing Skills by Louise Sparkes, Jennifer Bassett and Elisabeth Jacob.
skill 2-9
Undertaking a musculoskeletal assessment
Refer to Dempsey, Hillege and Hill, Fundamentals of Nursing and Midwifery:
A Person-Centred Approach to Care 2e, Chapter 30, Comprehensive health assessment
Goal:
The assessment is completed accurately without causing
the patient to experience anxiety or discomfort, the findings
are documented and the appropriate referral is made to other
healthcare professionals, as needed, for further evaluation.
1. Identify the patient.
2. Check the medical order or clinical pathway/care plan.
3. Introduce yourself, explain the rationale for the
procedure to the patient and family, and obtain consent.
4. Gather the necessary equipment.
Equipment:
tape measure, goniometer (optional), skin
marking pen.
5. Undertake a risk assessment, if indicated.
6. Perform hand hygiene.
7. Put on personal protective equipment (PPE), if indicated.
8. Ensure patient privacy is maintained and that
interruptions are minimal.
9. Undertake a health history, as per Skill 2-1.
10. Help the patient to undress, if needed, and provide a
patient gown. Assist the patient to a supine position. Use
a blanket or drape to cover any exposed area other than
the one being assessed.
11. Begin with a survey of the patient’s overall hygiene and
physical appearance.
12. Assess the patient’s ability to move their neck. Ask them
to touch their chin to the chest and to each shoulder,
touch each ear to the corresponding shoulder and then
tip the head back as far as possible.
13.
Upper limbs.
Inspect the upper and lower arms, wrists,
elbows, hands and fingers for size, symmetry and colour.
14. Palpate the hands, fingers, wrists and elbow joints for
tenderness, pain, oedema, heat, nodules or crepitus. Mark
any hot, reddened areas with a skin marking pen.
15. Test strength and range of motion (ROM). Ask the
patient to extend their arms forwards and then rapidly
turn their palms up and down.
16. Ask the patient to flex their upper arm and to resist your
opposing force. Repeat for the other arm.
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