Assessment processes in nursing practice

                                     Assessment processes in nursing practice

 Assessment of patients is a crucial component of nursing care that is required for the planning and provision of patient-centered care. Besides, the assessment of patients enables a nurse to make a correct diagnosis. Nursing assessments can be an initial assessment, emergency assessments, shift, or focused. According to Mahmoud & Yearwood (2019 ), before a nurse conducts a patient assessment, there should be an indication for the evaluation, which often requires critical thinking.

Assessment process used in my daily nursing practice

In every shift of nursing care, patients need to be evaluated for their state of well-being and the progress to their recovery, which is referred to as shift assessment. Also, a patient’s condition could change during a shift, and nurses need to perform a focused assessment. The information obtained during the commencement of a shift is used to make plans of care, and any change in patient’s condition is recorded in the continuing nurses’ notes (Alfaro-LeFevre, 2013). Critical thinking should be used to determine the extent of assessment required for each patient.

However, patient assessments are significant for cost-effective, efficient, and quality patient care; evaluation seems to be a systems checklist. That is, nurses must perform patient assessment without necessarily reflecting on the rationale for assessing their patients. Mayouf et al., (2019) attributes this phenomenon to high nurses’ workload, while (Alfaro-LeFevre,2013) argues that during every shift, nurses act efficiently without critical thinking skills because many decisions are based on routines and habits without requiring reflection. Therefore, nurses use critical thinking skills when there are patient needs and operations that require interventions beyond routines.

How to reevaluate personal habits and cognitive processes and include critical thinking in the assessment process

Critical thinking involves the differentiation of facts from opinions and judgments (Alfaro-LeFevre, 2013). The critical thinking process requires that a nurse thinks creatively, participates in analytical thinking, and uses reflection. To identify patient problems and implement interventions to ensure safe patient outcomes, nurses should incorporate their habits with cognitive processes. According to Alfaro-LeFevre (2013), personal attributes that are needed for a nurse to be a critical thinker include being self-aware to clarify bias, strengths, and weaknesses. Besides, a self-aware nurse recognizes that their thinking may be influenced by self-interest or emotions. Also, being a genuine, effective communicator, careful, analytical, and honest are required personal traits for a nurse to be a critical thinker in patient assessment.

In conclusion, critical thinking is essential for safe patient care, and nurses are required to employ critical thinking skills in the assessment of patients. During the beginning of every nurse’s shift, nurses are needed to evaluate their patients to obtain baseline data for the entire shift. To be a critical thinker, nurses are required to be an inquisitive, self-aware, effective communicator, and honest.

References

Alfaro-LeFevre, R. (2013). Critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment. What is Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning, 1-23.

Mahmoud, S. H., & Yearwood, C. (2019). Critical Care Assessment. In-Patient Assessment in Clinical Pharmacy (pp. 353-373). Springer, Cham.

Mayouf, T. T., Al-Qader, A. Z. A. & Ali, M. T. (2019). Assessment of Barriers to implementing Nursing Processes. Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development, 10(9), 837-841.