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Critical thinking essay on nursing assessment
Critical thinking essay on nursing assessment
Critical thinking essay on nursing assessment
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Prioritizing care is one of the first things that nurses learn in their career. Prioritizing requires critical thinking whether it comes to discharging a patient, caring for a patient, or delegating a task to a LPN or CNA. As the charge nurse they must look at the whole picture and not just the tasks that need to be done. The charge nurse is the one makes the assignments for the individual nurses, so if there happens to be a float nurse from a different department they might give them the patients with the lowest acuity depending on the nurse’s experience. The charge nurse must know which patients could be discharged if there was an emergency to arise or not enough hospital beds for those patients who need to be admitted. For example, the nurse is not going to recommend someone who came in with a heart attack; they would most likely recommend someone who is two days post op and is being discharged to a rehab facility in a couple of days. It is the charge nurses duty to make that everyone providing great and safe care to the patient.
Prioritization is to make sure that the patient receives safe and quality care. A nurse would prioritize care of a patient based on their individual needs. The nurse uses critical thinking to determine what issues need to be addressed first, such as assessing the patients respirations, circulation, neurosensory, food and fluid intake, bowel and bladder eliminations, comfort, rest, sleep, safety, activity, hygiene, significant relationships, ego, integrity and sexuality. The first level of prioritizing to makes sure that the patient’s ABC’s are not compromised. ABC’s refer to airway, breathing, and circulation. The nurse is going to take care of a patient who is having trouble breathing or does not...
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...ing student would take the patient to the bathroom, while they are in there get pain meds for my other patient, get the first patient back to bed, check in on the patient that is doing well and let them know I would be back with their meds shortly, go talk to family, and then do the discharge. Its basic and one piece could turn around that whole scenario. With prioritization this can also help the nurse save time, because then one knows how much time is needed for each task that needs to be done.
In conclusion prioritizing in nursing is important to insure the patient safety, by ensuring their safety, they are not only ensuring proper care, they are making sure that everything following their care is done properly and that the right tasks are being delegated to the proper person, so proper care is given at proper time and they are always acting as patient advocate
In nursing, the patient is often viewed as the main priority of the nursing staff. The nurse works to provide care for the patient based on the patient 's admitting diagnosis. However, the patient must be looked at as a part of the greater system they exist in such as their family or home environment. While the patient may be ill due to a bacterial infection or virus, their family environment also plays a role in their overall health and wellness.
- Nurse should place the patients well being above their personal beliefs and values. They should focus on treating the patient and making sure the patient’s needs are being met. This also means that tough decisions have to be made in the process whether it goes against what the health care team wants or it goes against what Mrs. Dawson wants.
According to the American Nurses Association, nursing is defined as “the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, facilitation of healing, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, groups, communities, and populations” (American Nurses Association, 2016). Nurses have many jobs and responsibilities and wear many different hats. Nurses can perform at many different levels depending on their scope of practice which is defined by the board of nursing in one’s state of residence. It is important as nurses to understand and follow
Nurses have a considerable amount of responsibility in any facility. They are responsible for administering medicines and treatments to there patient’s. While caring for there patients, nurses will make observations on patient’s health and then record there findings. As well as consulting with doctors and other healthcare professionals to plan proper individual patient care. They teach their patients how to manage their illnesses and explain to both the patient and the patients family how to continue treatment when returning home (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014-15). They also record p...
...cannot attend to it alone. The nurse must be able to understand and organize a multi-dimensional approach to care. During my clinical experience I was able to work with CNA’s, LPN’s and RN’s. This allowed me to learn from their experience and to deliver better care as a result. I also worked with members of my own team and we each learned from each other’s strengths and weakness.
Traditionally nurse’s role in evaluating a patient has to record the observations made but not to interpret them. The main observation includes pulse, temperature, rate of respiratory, blood pressure and consciousness level (Alice, 1985). The ability of nurse to record such observations accurately will determine the priority of the patient care. Assessment based on priority setting is one of the major skills that nurses that are newly fit may lack. Th...
This essay will explain the importance of ‘Prioritising patients’ from one of the ‘P’s in the Nurses and Midwifery Council Code. The Nurse and Midwifery Council Code (NMC) is a set of standards in which nurses and midwives have to maintain to keep their registration. It is used to guide and support nurses and midwives whilst in practise. Within the code there are a set of four key principles that support the practice of all nurses and midwives, to remind them of their professional responsibilities.
The nurse needs to recognize the limitations of each staff member and learn what assignments are within the scope of their practice and what are tasks that need delegation. Delegation is defined as a complex process that requires clinical judgment and final accountability for patients’ care (Weydt, 2010). An assignment is defined as “giving someone else a task within his/her own practice and is base on job descriptions and policies” (NCSBN, 2005, p. 1). The Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) and the Board of Vocational nursing & Psychiatric Technicians (BVNPT) website, lists what duties the RN and the LVN can legally do and is within their scope of practice, this is called the ‘nurse practice act’. A nurse assistant personnel (NAP) or Unlicensed Assistive personnel (UAP) may perform different tasks depending on the state that they reside in, but most include tasks that are considered activities of daily living (ambulating, hygiene, grooming)(NCSBN, 2005). The LVN can perform tasks that the nursing assistant can do, as well as other tasks which include: medication administration (oral, subcutaneous, intramuscular), simple dressing changes, wound care, suctioning, catheter insertion, drawing blood from a patient, and starting an IV and intravenous fluids. IV and blood draws are dependent on the LVNs certification, competence, and
Haugen, N., Galura, S., & Ulrich, S. P. (2011). Ulrich & Canale's nursing care planning guides: Prioritization, delegation, and critical thinking. Maryland Heights, Mo: Saunders/Elsevier. 14
The patient is more likely to focus all their questions and concerns to the nurse. When then the
Thousands of nurses throughout the nation are exhausted and overwhelmed due to their heavy workload. The administrators do not staff the units properly; therefore, they give each nurse more patients to care for to compensate for the lack of staff. There are several reasons to why
Prioritization is an essential skill for nurses because clients should be taken care of in the order that would best benefit all clients and keep all clients alive, safe, and healthy. It also helps plan out your day and figure out what requires the most time and what should be done first based on each client needs. Nursing prioritization is the decision made by the nurse on which patient interaction to address first (Lake, 2009). Prioritization is considered a decision making process (Lake, 2009). For me in particular, none of my patients had any immediate dangers. I chose to implement safety precautions first for each patient and then reorient them to ensure their safety was taken care of first. I would say that yes, my prioritization of my
When a nurse is providing patient care, he/she creates a safe environment for the patient and enables the choice to establish a relationship on a human to human interaction or on a transpersonal level. The patient will be acknowledged as a person with the wholeness of their soul despite their illness or number on the bed. The ten carative factors in this theory are used as an education tool for nurses around the world and should be applied to the different care situations in practice. Nurses use the factors to promote growth in themselves and within the patient. A nurse should respect the patient’s decisions and take the time to fully be present in the moments with the patient. A lot of nurses complain about the time limitations they have and do not provide the necessary amount of time to listen and gather the patient’s perspective of the situation. Another way this theory can be applied to practice is by recognizing the caring moment between you and the patient. This will determine how the relationship will
Caring is a very important component of nursing. Caring is important to nursing because it is a nurse 's job to care for the patient and make sure all is well. If a nurse was not caring, than the patient would not feel safe and not receive the best care possible. Nurses have to use all of the key characteristics mentioned in order to achieve excellent patient
In the healthcare setting, a systematic process to ensure maximum care and maximum recovery in patients is needed, which is called the nursing process. This process consists of four steps: assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation (Walton, 2016). The nursing process is important to ensure quality care and to get the preferred outcome. In the nursing process, critical thinking is used to recognize the issue and come up with a logical solution to solving it. One important aspect of the nursing process is that the plan is not set in stone; it is meant to be manipulated in order to better suit the patient. Nurses must be able to think critically in order to recognize the issue, develop a way to correct it, and be able to communicate the issue to others. Throughout the nursing process, critical thinking is used to determine the best plan of care for a patient based on their diagnosis.