nursing process

• Nursing Process

  Systematic, rational method of planning and providing individualized nursing care
• Nursing Process

  1. Identify a client's health status

  2. Identify actual or potential healthcare problems or needs

  3. Establish plans to meet the identified needs

  4. Deliver specific nursing interventions to meet those needs
• Hall originated the term nursing process in 1955
• Client


  May be an individual, a family, a community, or a group
• The nursing process is a framework for providing QUALITY nursing care
• Lydia Hall coined the term "Nursing Process"


  1955
• Nursing Process

  1. Assessment

  2. Planning

  3. Evaluation
• Nursing Process

  1. Assessing

  2. Planning

  3. Implementing

  4. Evaluation
• Nursing Process

  1. Assessing

  2. Diagnosing

  3. Planning

  4. Implementing

  5. Evaluation
• Fry (1953) first used the term "nursing diagnosis"
• Nursing Process

  1. Assessment

  2. Diagnosing

  3. Planning

  4. Implementing

  5. Evaluating
• Characteristics of the Nursing Process

  • Data from each phase provide input into the next phase
  • Findings from the evaluation phase feed back into assessment
  • Cyclic and Dynamic
  • Client centered
  • Adaptation of Problem Solving and Systems Theory
  • Decision-making
  • Interpersonal and Collaborative
  • Universal applicability
• Critical thinking


  Reasonable reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do
• Clinical reasoning


  Utilize clinical reasoning throughout the delivery of nursing care to determine whether the outcome of care was appropriate
• The medical model focuses on physiologic systems and disease process, while the nursing process is directed towards client's response to real or potential disease
• The nursing process facilitates the individualization of the nurse's plan of care
• The nursing process requires that nurses collaborate as members of the healthcare team to provide quality client care
• The nursing process is used as a framework of nursing care in ALL types of healthcare settings, with clients of ALL age groups
• Critical thinking questions are asked during each phase of the nursing process
• Reflecting on the nursing process involves determining if care was provided in a timely manner, if the client was assessed accurately, if the interventions were appropriate, if the goals were attained, and if the nursing diagnosis was resolved