The ICCM assessment
Assessment is defined as the process of finding or searching a problem; childhood assessment is a process of finding childhood problems, by taking a history from the mother or by inspecting sign and symptoms of child's hood illness.
When you are assessing a sick child, a combination of those signs leads to one or more classifications. After you find the sign or symptom, you classify and give an intervention to the sick child. Assessment is a baseline for classification and management. Therefore, you should systematically assess the sick child.
The assessment takes place when the child is calm. You should be very patient to assess the child's illness. Assessment includes present and history and physical examination.
First, when the mother comes to your health post with her sick child, you should ask about the main complaint of the child's illness. For example, the main complaint of the child illness may be a cough for two days. You should ask the mother about any history related to a child cough, (e.g. is there any person of your family members or any other person around the area who are having a cough?), the duration, frequency, intensity of the disease and history. You should ask about general danger signs: is the child lethargic, unable to drink or drink poorly?, is the child having convulsions or having been unconscious? etc..). Ask questions systematically to the mother until you get sufficient information about the child illness. After the assessment, the next step is to classify the child's illness.
After the classification, children can be referred to the health centre or hospital for further treatment or be managed at the health post or managed at home. Finally, you will set up a follow-up appointment with the child, and you should counsel the mother about further prevention and home care interventions.