HE - Nursing Process

• Health is a quality of life involving social, mental, and biological fitness on the part of the individual which results from adaptations to the environment
• Nursing process involves assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, evaluation.
• Assessment is the systematic collection of data about the patient's health status through observation, interview, examination, and testing.
• Diagnosis is the identification of actual or potential problems based on the collected information during assessment.
• Planning is the development of goals and objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) to address identified nursing diagnoses.
• The World Health Organization defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
• Assessment is the process of gathering and discussing information from multiple and diverse sources in order to develop a deep understanding.
• health assessment

  is a plan of care that identifies the specific needs of a person and how those needs will be addressed by the healthcare

  system or skilled nursing facility.
• Health assessment is the evaluation of the health status by performing a physical exam after taking a health history. It is done to detect diseases early in people that may look and feel well.
• 7 Components of Health

  1. Physical
  2. Social
  3. Mental or Cognitive
  4. Spiritual
  5. Emotional
  6. Sexual
  7. Environmental
• Physical health is defined by what has, can and will affect your physical body such as genetics, diet, exercise, illness, disability, environment (including housing, work/school conditions and pollution), economic status, physical accessibility to resources and medical supplies and any other factors that can damage or improve your physical body.
• Social health includes all forms of social interactions with two or more individuals including family, friends, colleagues, team/class mates, strangers, media including social media, internet, television and movies. Social health includes the potential of being influenced by other individuals or groups, either directly or indirectly such as media.
• Cognitive health includes multiple factors which when combined, create an individuals intelligence. These factors are necessary to develop and/or maintain independence.

  Important factors include the ability to learn, memory, intuition, judgement, language, reason, concentration, planning and organisation.
• Emotional health is not simply feeling happy all or most of the time but experiencing a large variety of emotions (positive and negative). Positive emotional health requires the appropriate emotion to be experienced according to the event that has occurred i.e. sadness/grief with loss, fear at a time of danger.

  Emotional health includes the ability to regulate and demonstrate feelings in a safe and healthy manner and that will not result in harm to one self or others.
• Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality; it is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity. Sexual health requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.
• Spiritual health is the most abstract and difficult to define, often including beliefs of unity with a greater force, a supreme being, a guiding sense of meaning, and values like hope, purpose, faith, and peace
• Spiritual health is a combination of social, emotional, cognitive, and cultural health, with the potential to positively and negatively affect emotional and physical health
• Spirituality can be a strong motivational factor for improving and maintaining all other forms of health
• Environmental health is focused on the natural and built environments for the benefit of human health, whereas environmental protection is concerned with protecting the natural environment for the benefit of human health and the ecosystem
• Total Health is used to refer to the lifelong interdependence, constant interactions, and balance of the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual dimensions of human growth and development.
• 10 Components of Total Health

  1. Physical
  2. Psychological/Mental
  3. Spiritual
  4. Sexual
  5. Social
  6. Occupational
  7. Matrimonial
  8. Family
  9. Financial
  10. Environmental
• Thinking can be understood as a mental process which produces thoughts.
• Reasoning is also a mental process. This can be understood as a sub process of thinking.
• Critical thinking is the process of intentional higher level thinking to define a client’s problem, examine the evidence-based practice in caring for the client, and make choices in the delivery of care.
• Clinical reasoning is the cognitive process that uses thinking strategies to gather and analyze client information, evaluate the relevance of the information, and decide on possible nursing actions to improve the client’s physiological and psychosocial outcomes.
• Nurses use critical thinking skills in a variety of ways:

  1. Nurses use knowledge from other subjects and fields
  2. Nurses deal with change in stressful environments
  3. Nurses make important decisions
• ATTITUDES THAT FOSTER CRITICAL THINKING:

  1. Independence
  2. Fair-Mindedness
  3. Insight into Egocentricity
  4. Intellectual Humility
  5. Intellectual Courage to Challenge the status Quo and Rituals
  6. Integrity
  7. Perseverance
  8. Confidence
  9. Curiosity
• Elements of reasoning

  1. All reasoning is based on data, information and evidence
  2. All reasoning has a purpose
  3. All reasoning is an attempt to figure something out, to settle some question, to solve some problem
  4. All reasoning is done from some point of view
  5. All reasoning contains inferences or interpretations by which we draw conclusions and give meaning to data
  6. All reasoning is based on assumptions
  7. All reasoning is expressed through, and shaped by, concepts and ideas
  8. All reasoning leads somewhere or has implications and consequences
• Clinical reasoning is the analysis of a clinical situation as it unfolds or develops. It requires the nurse to use cognitive and metacognitive processes.
• The first step in clinical reasoning is identifying the patient's problems. The nurse must be able to recognize signs and symptoms of disease and injury, understand how they relate to one another, and determine whether there are any underlying causes.
• Cognitive processes are the thinking processes based on the knowledge of aspects of client care. Cognitive skills are learned through reading and applying health-related literature. Cognitive skills are enhanced through the use of critical thought to understand and apply content the nurse has previously learned.
• Metacognitive processes include reflective thinking and awareness of the skills learned by the nurse in caring for the client.
• Universal intellectual standards are standards which must be applied to thinking whenever one is interested in checking the quality of reasoning about a problem, issue, or situation. To think critically entails having command of these standards
• Clarity is a quality of being clear, in particular Clarity is the gateway standard. If a statement is unclear, we cannot determine whether it is

  accurate or relevant.

  Could you elaborate further on that point? Could you express that point in another way?
• Accuracy is the state of being correct or precise.

  A statement can be clear but not accurate, as in

  • Is that really true?

  • What evidence is there to support your statement?
• Precision is the quality or condition of being exact and accurate, but not necessarily detailed
• Relevance refers to the state of being closely connected or appropriate to the question or issue at hand
• Depth in an answer addresses the complexity and profundity of thought, considering the most significant factors and problems in the question
• Breadth the distance or measurement from side to side. It involves considering different viewpoints and perspectives to fully understand the question or issue
• Logic pertains to reasoning conducted or assessed according to strict principles of validity, ensuring that conclusions follow logically from the information provided