The Nursing Process

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The nursing process is one of the most fundamental yet crucial aspects of the nursing profession. It guides patient care in a manner that creates an effective, safe, and health promoting process. The purpose and focus of this assessment paper is to detail the core aspects of the nursing process and creating nursing diagnoses for patients in a formal paper. The nursing process allows nurses to identify a patient’s health status, their current health problems, and also identify any potential health risks the patient may have. The nursing process is a broad assessment tool that can be applied to every patient but results in an individualized care plan tailored to the most important needs of the patient. The nurse can then implement this outcome oriented care plan and then evaluate and modify it to fit the patient’s progress (Taylor, C. R., Lillis, C., LeMone, P., & Lynn, P., 2011). The nursing process prioritizes care, creates safety checks so that essential assessments are not missing, and creates an organized routine, allowing nurses to be both efficient and responsible. The nursing process is based upon five steps. The first step is the assessment phase; this can range from body system specific to head-to-toe assessment. These assessments are both subjective and objective and must be properly documented, organized and validated (Taylor et al, 2011). The second phase of the nursing process is formulating a diagnosis. The nurse identifies the patient’s needs and strengths from reviewing the previous assessments and determines what the nursing diagnosis should be. Then comes the planning phase where the nurse organizes the interventions by priority based upon the assessments and creates a plan for the patient to work on ... ... middle of paper ... ... his hopefulness and mood. R.M. strives for a positive outlook each day with his wife by his side and noted that coping mechanisms are important to help his healing process. References Jarvis, C. (2008). Physical examination and health assessment (5th ed.) with skills DVD. St. Louis: Saunders. Lemon, P. & Burke, K. (2011). Medical-surgical nursing (5th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Porth, C. (2009). Pathophysiology: Concepts of Altered Health States (8th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. Spark Ralph, S. & Taylor, C. M. (2011). Nursing diagnosis reference manual (8th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Taylor, C. R., Lillis, C., LeMone, P., & Lynn, P. (2011). Fundamentals of nursing: The art and science of nursing care (7th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

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