Reflective Dialogue
The formulation of a nursing care plan involves putting patient’s information in a meaningful form. The decision to formulate a patient’s nursing care plan is made by the nurse in charge of taking care of the patient after assessing the need for the plan. A nursing care plan is only useful in severe health cases where patients require special attention. The use of a nursing care plan is to provide the direction to be followed for an individualized client’s care and to provide continuity in case the care provided to an individual has to be extended. The documentation of notes on the client’s progress serves as a guide for assigning staff whenever a client needs attention.
At the Renal ward, decision making was only the responsibility of trained nurses. The intern students would then follow the decisions made by the nurses without questioning. One of the critical decisions that were made at the renal ward was the decision to prepare nursing care plans for all the renal patients in the wards. The fact that the ward would sometimes provide beds for patients from other wards made the use of nursing care plans crucial to avoid confusions. The total capacity of the ward was 20 beds which were more than the average number of renal patients, and thus patients from other wards would be allowed to occupy the excess beds and rooms. After the decision to prepare nursing care plans, the student interns were tasked with analyzing the client information to come up with organized and well-planned nursing care plans.
According to Gillespie and Paterson (2009) framework, the decision was based on the context, foundational knowledge, decision-making process, and thinking process. The context of the decision was affected by the customer needs and the circumstances leading to the making of the said decision (Brummell et al. p. 50). For example, the fact that the ward dealt with mixed client cases implied that the staff tasked with providing nursing care required accurate information about the specifics of the clients to be attended. Accuracy in the information provided would eliminate cases of confusion and time wastage. The foundational knowledge, in this case, is considered in that only trained nurses are allowed to make decisions in the ward. The interns are required to adhere to the decisions made by nurses without questioning. On the decision-making process, the nurses consider several decisions and decide to act on one decision (Ackley et al. p. 100). When a decision fails to give the required results, the nurses are required to pick an alternative decision. Finally, the nurses have the opportunity to use their creativity in coming up with decisions concerning the ward. The allowance for creativity allows the nurses to challenge the existing assumptions and making more accurate decisions.
Trained nurses purely do the decision-making process in the renal ward. The student interns are required to follow the decisions made in carrying out their responsibilities. The decision to prepare nursing care plans is made according to Gillespie and Paterson framework of 2009.