A nursing assessment is defined as a systematic and dynamic process to collect and examine data about a patient. Nurses play a crucial role in the health care field, and one of the most important aspects of their daily obligations is to assess patients, and to continuously reassess patients. The reason assessments are so significant is- in case of any changes in their patients condition whether it effects their health positively or negatively. Some of the most vital information can be gathered in a nursing assessment, you cannot always go off of what the patient says. As a nurse you must use all of your senses to complete this responsibility. A sufficient level of intelligence and adequate skills are required by the registered nurse to be …show more content…
A study conducted on a medical/surgical unit where surveillance to improve patient safety confirmed just how serious vitals can potentially be. Having monitoring vitals continuously made nursing interventions happen that prevented failure to recue events from occurring. Being able to react to abnormal vital signs instantaneously can prevent early clinical deterioration. T. Watkins (2016, January 1.) If a nurse can react and detect these flaws in patient vitals it will improve patient safety and progress the practice as well. Even if a patient has been consistently stable for hours or even days their condition could plummet at any moment, for any number of reasons. An infection could come on sudden onset or a negative reaction to a medication which is why vitals must be continuously monitored incase such an event were to occur and reacting in a timely manner could impact the patients ' health tremendously in a positive way. Continuing on, when assessing patients, sometimes the mistake is made of using subjective judgement or estimation to avoid work and to cut corners. This could potentially be tremendously dangerous for the patient, even if it may seem like a minuscule detail. Information gathered
By carrying out an assessment nurses can identify the causes of problems that require medical involvement. Nettina (2006)
Many elderly and their family cannot determine what are normal aging and what are not; therefore, educating them is the key role for nurses to promote safety and health for older adults. Not only assessing physical changes but also mental health assessment is important because those age-related physical changes may cause depression in older adults, which leads to other problems like “difficulty with sleeping,
In this Assessment nursing course, one of the major things that is taught is the most important part of giving proper care to a patient. Correct patient assessment is needed before any nursing care plan or treatment can be implemented. This post-review of a person’s assessment will demonstrate the proper way to go about assessing a person’s health.
The first stage of the process is assessment. Roper et al (2001) refer to this process as ‘assessing’ indicating an ongoing activity; this encourages nurses to recognise the on-going nature of this initial phase. The assessing stage includes gathering information about a patient, reviewing this information, identifying actual and potential problems and prioritising (Roper et al 2001). Roper et al (2001) explain the importance for assessing, as early as possible in the patient’s stay. Extensive, in-depth information may not be gathered on an initial assessment, however any information obtained contributes towards individualised care (Roper et al 2001). Ambrose and Wittig (1998) explain that the initial assessment becomes a foundation for ongoing assessing and holistic care. Barrett, Wilson and Woollands (2009) concord with Roper et al and Wittig in that assessing is an ongoing process and elaborate on this explaining that assessment should not be confused with admission. They state “an admission tends to be a one-off process when you first meet the patient, whereas assessment carries on throughout your relationship with the patient” (pg22). Assessment enables the nurse and patient to identify actual and potential problems. Although, some problems can be directly related to biological needs, holistic needs must be considered, i.e. psychological state and cultural/social standing
Comprehensive assessments is the most valuable piece which allows Nurse Practitioners to know about the health risks, strengths and needs of their patients. Furthermore, the comprehensive assessment strengths the relationship between the Nurse Practitioners and their patients. From clinician-patients relationship, it helps a complete assessment to answer patients questions which in the long run help to achieve measurable goals and provide quality outcomes to the patients. Nurse Practitioners use comprehensive assessment approach to analyze, interpret, implement and follow up care to ensure their patients receive appropriate care and prevent inappropriate diagnosis. Comprehensive assessment is where the patients are encourage to
Nursing care is focused on the assessment, nursing diagnoses, planning, implementation, and evaluation of patients. This nursing process can also be implemented in aspects outside of nursing and on the nursing field as a collective group. The nursing role is evolving, following the process the outcomes have to be evaluated and put into perspective. Research is being completed the conclusions are all the same, the higher education of nursing care the better the patient outcomes.
The aim of this essay is to demonstrate the assessment process of a patient using the Roper Logan and Tierney (RLT) model of nursing framework and to show how the nursing process works alongside this model. This will be shown by a holistic history of the patient being shown, followed by how the RLT model is applicable to this patient. This is then followed by one nursing intervention being discussed showing how the nursing process is applied to patient care. The patient will be referred to as Mr Frederick Valentine to protect the patient’s anonymity as stated in the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct (2008) guidelines.
Nursing process is a systematic process that involves a continuous cycle of five interrelated phases: holistic assessment of a client, nursing diagnoses, nursing care planning, implementation, and evaluation (Wilkinson et al. 2015). It enables nurses to assess the person’s health status and health care needs, to create plans to meet the identified needs, and to provide and evaluate individualised nursing interventions according to the person’s needs (Luxford 2015). The holistic assessment is the first step of the nursing process that includes the collection of subjective and objective data related to the physical, psychological, social, developmental, cultural, and spiritual status of a client (Wilkinson et al. 2015). This comprehensive approach to nursing assessment is essential because it allows nurses to comprehend not only clients’ health status, but also their routines and needs in order to incorporate their life-styles into the care interventions (Luxford 2015). It ultimately enables nurses to provide appropriate quality person-centred care rather than nurse-initiated care (Luxford 2015). Responsibility for holistic nursing assessment is supported by the Registered nurse standards for practice (2016), ‘Standard 4.1: The registered nurse conducts assessments that are holistic as well as culturally appropriate’ (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia [NMBA] 2016, p. 4). This essay will discuss the elements and the importance of holistic assessment in nursing.
This piece of work will be based on the pre-assessment process that patients go through on arrival to an endoscopy unit in which I was placed in during my second year studying Adult diploma Nursing. I will explore one patient’s holistic needs, identifying the priorities of care that the patient requires; I will then highlight a particular priority and give a rational behind this. During an admission I completed under the supervision of my mentor I was pre-assessing a 37 year old lady who had arrived to the unit for an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. During the pre-assessment it was important that a holistic assessment is performed as every patient is an individual with unique care needs as the patient outline in this piece of work has
I am pleased to state that I have been a registered nurse for forty years. At this moment, I continue working in nursing while pursuing my Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. My intended month of completion is October 2012. My experience in nursing education has motivated me to continue my education and pursue a Masters degree in a nursing related field commencing in 2013. Thus, in terms of my career planning, my education is a crucial part to my professional development. Extending and deepening one's education, especially within the career field of one's choice, can only bring upon additional professional opportunities as well as opportunities for personal growth. My career planning includes building upon my decades of experience in obstetrics, my particular area of specialty, expertise, and passion, with the assistance and addition of higher education. I believe in terms of career planning, my strengths include foresight, preparation, internal motivation, and focus.
In today’s climate of clinical effectiveness and value for money, a greater level of skill is required of nurses. ”(Nursingtimes.net. 2011). For the likes of Jane, a resident in a nursing home, nursing assessment forms the bases of her care plan. The care plan must set out: the needs identified by the assessment (Nhs.uk,
The national league for nurses defines critical thinking in the nursing process as “a discipline specific, reflective reasoning process that guides a nurse in generating, implementing, and evaluating approaches for dealing with client care and professional concerns” (Kozier, 2008). This definition is imperative to help a nursing student learn how to think in terms of nursing care. Nursing students must achieve a comprehensive understanding of critical thinking in order to understand the nursing process. The purpose for this paper is for nursing students to learn how to use the nursing process, how to properly document their findings and assessments, and correctly implement APA formatting in a formal paper.
Lily was a 65 year old lady with stage 5 CKD, she had recently begun hemodialysis treatment three times a week as an inpatient and had been responding well to treatment. During dialysis treatment on the morning of the first day, Lily’s observations showed that she was: tachycardic, hypotensive, tachypnoeaic, had an oxygen saturation level of 88% and was becoming confused and drowsy. It became apparent that Lily had become hypovolaemic. The hypovolaemic shock seen in this patient was of a particular critical nature due to the fact that her dialysis treatment had moved her rapidly through the first two stages of shock with her compensatory mechanisms failing very quickly (Tait, 2012). It was also much harder to identify the early signs of
Assessment is the accurate collection of comprehensive data pertinent to the patient’s health or the situation (“American Nurses Association,” 2010). Assessment is the first step in the nursing process and the most important. Assessment is the accurate collection of the patient’s health date
Assessment in the nursing process will establish the patients' ongoing needs and provide a quality of care best suited to the individual, to achieve a desirable health outcome.