Improving Physical Assessment Observational Skills in the Community Setting: An Experiential Exercise

To become skilled providers, nurse practitioner students are required to expand observational skills and develop acumen in differential diagnosis. Good observational skills are essential for developing differential diagnoses, which are narrowed through diagnostic reasoning to reach an accurate final diagnosis. Teaching observational skills and differential diagnosis methods to nurse practitioner students can be challenging for nurse educators. The goal of an experiential assessment exercise (EAE) was to breathe life into an online course and have fun while learning to gather data about the health status and risk factors of people in the community environment.