Book excerpt: This book introduces student nurses and novice practitioners to the assessment process, enabling them to identify patient problems in order for solutions to be planned and implemented. It presents the different stages of the assessment process, taking a holistic and person centred approach throughout. It encourages critical thinking and urges students to consider the social, cultural, psychological and environmental factors as well as the physical symptoms that may be present when making assessments. For this new edition, all chapters have been mapped to the 2018 NMC Standards, which means this is the most up-to-date resource on patient assessment. It introduces clinical decision-making within assessment and supports students in their study with detailed case studies and scenarios demonstrating practical application of key theory. There are also activities in the book to help build critical thinking, independent learning and other transferable graduate skills