Clinical Scenario
The clinical judgment process and critical thinking are essential to the nursing practice and positive patient outcomes. In particular, emergency room nurses require high-quality and timely decision-making to provide comprehensive and accurate care to acute patients. I would like to describe the clinical scenario I consider the most impactful with regard to my emergency nursing practice. A 40-year-old man arrived in the emergency department with severe chest pain radiating out to his left arm. Other symptoms included bloating, nausea, and heartburn, which were not relieved by ranitidine and antacids.
Clinical Judgement Process
The components of the clinical judgment process are presented in the slide, including cue recognition and clustering, hypotheses generation and prioritization, actions taken, and outcomes evaluated. According to Burdeu et al. (2020), the use of clinical cues “to recognize changes to patients’ clinical states, both deterioration and improvement” is essential to ensure effective patient care (para 4). Based on the initial assessment and cues recognized, I suspected that the patient was at risk of having the acute coronary syndrome. As a result of the initial interventions, the patient’s breathing was maintained until the doctor arrived.
Practice Excellence
I would like to share an example related to my current role as an emergency room nurse that improved the quality of care and helped me pursue practice excellence. Lack of communication between health care providers and nurses in the emergency department presented a significant challenge to clinical practice and affected patient outcomes. Therefore, I recognized the need for change and searched for an evidence-based solution to the problem to propose to seniors. As per Wang et al. (2018), “the use of communication tools/checklists, team training, multidisciplinary structured work shift evaluation” were recommended strategies (p. 81). As a result, the proposed changes were implemented in the emergency department, which improved communication and allowed me to pursue practice excellence.
Lifelong Learning
Achieving my BSN provides me with opportunities for my nursing career advancement and allows me to improve patient outcomes and quality of care for the community. As a nurse, I am committed to lifelong learning and continuous improvement of my knowledge and skills. In particular, evidence-based practice and scientific research are pivotal to making well-informed decisions that can tremendously affect patient outcomes. Overall, my knowledge of the clinical judgment process and critical thinking skills must be enhanced over the course of my career to provide quality care.
References
Burdeu, G., Lowe, G., Rasmussen, B., & Considine, J. (2020). Clinical cues used by nurses to recognize changes in patients’ clinical states: A systematic review. Nursing & Health Sciences, 23(1), 9-28. Web.
Wang, Y. Y., Wan, Q. Q., Lin, F., Zhou, W. J., & Shang, S. M. (2018). Interventions to improve communication between nurses and physicians in the intensive care unit: An integrative literature review. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 5(1), 81-88. Web.
Yin, D. C. P., Azzahhafi, J., & James, S. (2020). Risk assessment using risk scores in patients with acute coronary syndrome. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 9(9), 3039-3055. Web.