The assessment phase is the first phase (out of five) of the nursing process which provides all the information needed to initially plan for patient care. It is often performed by nurses when patients are admitted to a health facility, within a maximum of 8hours for stable patients and 24hours for unstable patients at the point of admission. Sometimes, the activities of this phase are well performed. In other times, the performance might not be satisfactory. Opinion seems to suggest that a knowledge gap is responsible for these inconsistencies. The objectives of this study were to identify the activities of the assessment phase, assess the definitions of the assessment phase, identify parameters used in the assessment phase of the nursing process. The study population were nurses at the Regional Hospital Bamenda. Sampling was done using the convenience sampling method. The sample size was 80 nurses. Instrument for data collection was a questionnaire which was self-administered. Ethical clearance was sought as well as informed consent from the participants. Data collected was sorted for completeness, tallied and was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.The results were considered statistically significant when p value was less than 0.05. The results reveal that majority (87.5%) of the nurses were female, 50% were in the age group 20-30years, 55% had a diploma and 58.8% had a working experience of 1-5years. Ninety percent of the nurses knew that assessment was the first step of the nursing process and 50% gave a definite definition of the assessment phase. In all, 68.8% of the participants agreed that all the listed activities were part of the assessment phase of the nursing process. A significant representation of the population, 37.5% of the nurses surprisingly left assessment as a medical doctor’s role, while 52.5% held that it provides the needed data to care for the patient. There was a statistically significant association of p=0.009 between those responsible for assessment and those who neglect it. The results can be used in the sensitization of nurses on the assessment phase of the nursing process through seminars and workshops, as well as reinforce it in training institutions.
