The Nursing Process

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According to the International Council of Nurses (2015), nursing involves the care of all sick or well individuals in all settings, regardless of age, family, group and/ or community. Nurses have a duty to promote health, prevent illness and care for the ill, disabled and dying people. While they are also defined in Australia through ‘the enrolled nurse, registered nurse and nurse practitioner competencies, and the code of conduct and code of ethics for nurses in Australia’ (NMBA 2015). As optimum patient care is clearly a key priority to nurses, the nursing process provides great assistance with this. The nursing process is a global concept developed as a systematic, person-centred method for the delivery of nursing care (Scully 2015). The …show more content…

On inspection, a nurse will detect any normal and abnormal findings using senses of vision, smell and hearing. Palpation is a technique where touch is required and the nurse will feel for any abnormalities such as texture, temperature, moisture, mobility, consistency, strength and rhythm of pulses, size, shape and degree of tenderness. Palpation is a skill which must be taught and learned as it can be a difficult technique. The nurse must know what to feel for and what is abnormal to ensure the assessment is completely accurate. Auscultation is the last technique in which the sense of hearing is utilised through a stethoscope to listen for any abnormal sounds. COLDSPA is also an extremely common abbreviation used within nursing to physically assess an individual. While it is important nurses understand these techniques and use them properly within their practise, they must also understand that patient is often left very vulnerable in these circumstances and it is important that they invest time to build a trusting nurse-patient relationship for optimum patient care (Hughey …show more content…

Despite the variety of definitions, spirituality may be commonly defined as ‘a vital essence of our lives that often enables us to transcend our circumstances and find new meaning and purpose, and that can foster hope’ (Speck, cited in Sartori 2010). In times of extreme illness, caring for a person’s spiritual needs can help reduce suffering, provide reassurance and comfort, and aid in physical and mental healing (Wicking 2015). ANMC Competency 9.5 reinforces this as it states ‘Facilitates a physical, psychosocial, cultural and spiritual environment that promotes individual/group safety and security’ (ANMC 2006 p. 8). It is essential when assessing spiritual needs that the nurse observe the patient to an extent that may identify clues indicative of underlying spiritual needs such as a person’s disposition which reveals them to be sad or withdrawn. Most importantly, time must be invested into all patients in order to identify these clues and consequently meet the requirements of optimum patient care. A demand for a sense of spirituality and the meaning of life is often seen among the older generations as they prepare their mind for the inevitable end, being death (Lewis & Foley 2014). Therefore, it is clear that nurses must perform spiritual assessments on all patients to identify the needs of these people and to ensure patients are receiving the best care

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