Selected Areas of Care - Abdominal Assessment

Abdominal Assessment
Check this site for an abdominal assessment - there are 43 slides with way more information than you will need, however it will not only instruct you how to do a proper assessment it will help you understand the underlying process as to what your assessment indicates.

Critical Elements for the CPNE include:

1. Complies wsith established guidelines
2. Positions the patient to facilitate abdominal assessment (supine with legs slightly bent)
3. Inspects for distention
4. Ausculates for bowels sounds
5. Performs light palpation over all 4 quadrants for tenderness or rigidity, unless contraindicated
6. Measures abdominal girth, when assigned.
7. Records data related to:
• distention
• presence or absence of bowel sounds in each of the four quadrants
• tenderness or rigidity
• abdominal girth, when assigned

• 4 Ps
• Pee - ask patient if they need to urinate
• Pain - ask if in any pain
• Position - lay flat with knees slightly bent
• Privacy
• Look - Listen - Feel