The Importance Of The Nursing Process In Nursing

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.

Upon walking into a room, a nurse will begin to notice things about their patient; their hygiene, dry skin/hair, oily skin/hair, nourishment or lack thereof, etc. This process is known as assessment, which is the first step in the nursing process. During the assessment of a patient, nurses are able

A nursing diagnosis is not the equivalent of a medical diagnosis; however, a nursing diagnosis can be used to formulate an intervention for the patient. A nursing diagnosis includes stating the problem, the cause, and signs and symptoms seen in the patient. For example, a patient may have been given the medical diagnosis of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), but this cannot be given as a nursing diagnosis. The proper nursing diagnosis would be: Ineffective airway clearance, related to excessive thick secretions as evidenced by coughing, gagging, and mucous. This type of diagnosis tells of an issue the nurse can solve or treat themselves using their own knowledge of the