Nursing Process Overview for Clinical Research
The nursing process is a complex five-step framework that nursing students can apply in patient-centered care every time they are tasked with evaluating the patient’s status and offering an informative plan that accurately addresses the patient’s needs. Knowing the steps of the nursing process improves your reasoning and ensures you have a good grip on the problem-solving approach in the medical field. It goes without saying, however, that a particularly challenging case will require professional nursing assignment help from specialists to identify the main issues and implement private care.
Moreover, if you are looking for helpful strategies to refine and advance your current nursing plans, you can use the following guide to outline your goals. It is critical for helping students understand the difference between a standard care plan and a nursing plan that makes an impact.
What Is the Nursing Process - Explore the Meaning
The definition of a nursing process in clinical writing is tied to understanding its purpose and essential components. In short, it is a five-step method in patient care and clinical decision-making that defines the primary reasoning behind the patient’s struggles, addresses possible solutions, and ensures that each solution is accompanied by a plausible explanation and medical evaluation. The entire process is often dismissed as a mere checklist by beginner medical professionals, yet anyone familiar with professional clinical interventions will agree that it is a highly adaptable and dynamic approach that transforms nursing care into a personalized experience.
What’s the Purpose of the Nursing Process?
The purpose of nursing process can be summed up in the following points:
- Guarantees a more personal and customized approach to patient care as it manages each patient’s specific requirements, needs, and condition.
- Improves written communication between medical professionals, as all of them deal with a clearly formatted document as opposed to handwritten notes, a complete lack of plan, or the absence of a clinical purpose.
- Encourages nursing professionals to use analytical thinking, as they are tasked with evaluating outcomes on a regular basis and improving their skills over time.
- Lowers the risk of possible errors or misunderstandings in patient care planning, as everything is organized with accuracy, care, and attention.
- Monitors the reasoning process and helps beginner nurses adapt to the research conditions while maintaining professionalism.
For new nurses and students who have just started to learn how to prioritize organized clinical documentation, asking someone to write my nursing paper can be a healthy alternative to constant research struggles that will allow them to approach the nursing field confidently.
What Are the 5 Steps of the Nursing Process?
Here are the five steps of the nursing process that you need to be aware of organized clinical writing:
-
Assessment
- Assessment gathers subjective and objective data
- Subjective data features patient reports and information
- Objective data includes observed and measurable information
- Nurses are required to perform medical examinations and run lab tests
- Nurses are expected to observe mobility, environment, and mental health
-
Diagnosis
- A nursing diagnosis identifies potential and actual patient problems
- A nursing diagnosis relies on a standard framework to label the issue (NANDA-approved)
- A diagnosis will always treat subjective information as a priority and analyze patient observations (for example, a disturbed sleep pattern or an anxiety related to academic stress factors)
-
Planning
- Planning uses a SMART approach for organizing data
- All data should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound
- Planning requires a specific treatment plan or intervention for long- and short-term objectives
- Specific measuring tools are used in the process (Airway, Breathing, Circulation / Maslow’s hierarchy)
-
Implementation
- The care plan is put into action with every intervention, and the patient’s commentary is recorded for truthful observation
- The medication is administered and coordination with other healthcare professionals is established for a more profound problem-solving.
-
Evaluation
- The medical professionals must decide if the objectives have been accomplished
- Nurses must assess the effectiveness of suggested interventions/treatments
- If the outcomes have not been achieved in full, the revised plan is offered
Nursing Process Example
Scenario: A 40-year-old patient is admitted with a high fever.
- Assessment: The nurse measures the temperature, which is revealed to be 103.2°F, makes notes about the patient’s skin being hot to the touch, red and flushed, and provides commentary on the patient’s report of feeling “freezing and trembling.”
- Diagnosis: Hypothermia of the whole body directly related to the infectious processes and evidenced by the body temperature that has reached 103.2°F.
- Plan: The goal is to lower the patient’s temperature below 100°F within the next two or three hours.
- Implementation: The nurse administers Tylenol, provides increased fluid intake within the next several hours, and applies consistent cool compresses to lower the body temperature.
- Evaluation: After one hour, the nurse is required to re-check the temperature and finds the body heat to have dropped to 99°F, which indicates the goal was met.
Common Mistakes Students Make (and How to Fix Them)
If your goal is to make the assessment process flawless and ensure your nursing diagnosis remains without fault, avoid these common pitfalls:
- Omitting holistic evaluation. The nurse must always assess the accompanying factors before making a diagnosis, especially the patient’s current physical condition, mental health, and environment.
- Having unrealistic or vague goals. A SMART approach should be used for clinical goals during the process and evaluation. Do not set unrealistic goals and expectations, such as lowering the patient’s body temperature in three minutes.
- Confusing medical and nursing diagnoses. A nurse must always prioritize patient reports and observations, drawing information from subjective evaluation and not focusing on the disease itself.
- Lack of proper organization and documentation. If the nursing process has not been documented with the use of proper terms and standards or not documented at all, the treatment has never occurred in legal terms.
- Failing to check interventions. The nurse must always rely on patient reevaluation and administer a new plan if the previous goals have not been accomplished. A nursing care plan writing service will provide assistance to beginner nurses struggling with clear documentation and administering effective interventions.
Nursing Process vs Care Plan - What’s the Difference?
In short, the nursing care plan is the outcome of the application of a five-step method to a specific patient. While the process is a tool for clinical decision-making, a care plan presents a written summary of all actions, treatments, and administered interventions. Unlike the nursing evaluation, which is constantly evolving and shifting dynamics, a care plan is rigid and static and can only be updated if serious changes are required. In addition, it is often treated as a tool to reflect inner thinking processes, while a care plan can be approached as an instruction for the entire care team to follow and is more personalized.