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The
nursing process is a continuous cycle of assessing, diagnosing, planning,
implementing, and evaluating. It is used to identify patients needs, establish priorities, develop a plan of care, carry out a plan of care and evaluate its effectiveness to promote optimal health and well-being of patients. The nursing process can be adapted to meet the specific needs of each individual patient. Based on the patients priority needs a care plan is developed.
What content should be kept? / What is essential and timeless?
- The nursing process is an essential aspect in nursing curriculum. It facilitates critical thinking and allows the nurse to function independently in the healthcare system. Nursing care requires a high degree of skill and knowledge which has led to a shift in responsibility from the physician to the nurse (Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, & Day, 2010). The nursing process is the beginning step, the building block, and foundation of nursing practice. A nurse utilizes the skills of assessment, diagnosing, planning, implementing, and evaluating everyday in practice. This way of thinking and planning can be applied to acute/critical care, the community health setting, and/or outpatient setting. The nursing process is timeless and is the standard of nursing practice which is backed by the Joint Commission, American Nurses Association, and the National League for Nursing. NCLEX, the nursing licensure exam is structured based on the nursing process.
- Utilization of the nursing process requires nurses to identify a NANDA (North American Nursing Diagnosis Association) Diagnoses and put together a handwritten care plan. NANDA diagnoses are actual or potential patient problems identified by the nurse. Examples include: impaired gas exchange, activity intolerance, pain, ineffective coping, impaired nutrition: less than body requirements, risk for falls, etc. Nursing diagnoses are different from medical diagnoses in the aspect nurses are not treating a specific medical condition; only doctors are licensed to make a medical diagnosis based on a pathological process. After the nurse identifies the priority diagnosis a care plan is created. Handwritten care plans are time consuming and inefficient. Nurses often get lost is the formalization of the NANDA diagnosis and the proper format of the care plan. Technology allows us to streamline this concept with the use of computer programs. Formal nursing diagnoses and care plans are non-essential. The goal of nursing practice is to identify actual and potential patient problems and create a plan of care to facilitate optimal patient care; a formal plan is not needed to accomplish this.
- Concept maps and standardized care plans are developed based on a nurses understanding of the nursing process and are necessary components of nursing curriculum. These tools demonstrate a nurses ability to critically think about a patient situation and directly apply it to the clinical setting.
- A concept map is a diagram focusing on actual and potential patient problems and the interventions that go along with the problems. It also allows the nurse to evaluate the effectiveness of each intervention and adjust the plan of care accordingly. Concept maps organize patient data and allow the nurse to focus on the holistic view of a patient. Concept maps can also be used in the educational setting and/or as a form of an assessment.
- Standardized care plans are pre-developed plans of care for specific patient populations and disease processes that identify nursing problems/diagnoses, interventions and outcomes. Standardized care plans will save time and promote optimal patient care. Although the care plan will be standardized, it can be tailored to the specific needs of each patient.This form of care planning can be completed on the computer possibly using interactive software.
