ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to explore the issue of individual assessment within the rapidly changing policy context of primary health and community care. This builds on the previous chapter, which looked at the role of population-needs assessment at the public health end of the continuum. Assessment is advocated as a cornerstone of the NHS and community care reforms. Nurses in primary care have always carried out some form of patient assessment, but today it is increasingly important not just for individual care planning, but also for priority setting, resource allocation and description of case mix. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss assessment within the context of policy changes introduced by the community care legislation and the GP Contract. In addition, it discusses some recent work in the development of standardised measures of assessment. While the principles of assessment are largely generalisable, particular examples from care of the elderly are given.
