Nursing Modules 3 + 4

Knowledge and Clinical Judgement

Nursing uses evidence based practices and critical thinking to promote health and prevent disease, which aids in providing the best care possible to patients. The clinical judgement of a nurse is important to help ensure the safe high quality care of an individual and being attentive to the patients concerns. Nurses gain their knowledge by obtaining a well rounded education that is later contributed to their ability to educate others. Being a nurse requires the ability to shift roles from caregiver to friend to advocate and in doing this they are able to provide patient-centered care that helps in the healing of the patient, both physically and mentally. From this module I learned that being a nurse requires many different skills and all of these skills are learned in school but also in practice. A nurse must be flexible and calculated to help care for each individual patient to the best of their ability.

Priority Setting Frameworks

This module specifically discussed the need for prioritization of patients and specific prioritizing methods that are used in order to identify which patient’s require immediate care. From what I gathered, the entire basis for determining the top priority patient is based off of the Nursing Process (AD-PIE). From this process we then use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, ABC (airway, breathing, circulation) and safety to determine the patient who needs to be seen first. During the process of care we need to start by doing the least, i.e. elevate the head of the bed to improve breathing instead of starting oxygen right away. This speaks to maintaining the patients safety while also determining the amount of care that needs to be utilized. From this I learned that sometimes doing the least can help the most. I think sometimes we utilize extreme measures in cases that they aren’t necessarily needed and that likely contributes to high healthcare costs or even harm to the patient. This was not only important for patient prioritization but additionally to how our perception of a patients condition contributes to their expedient care.