7. CLINICAL REASONING
Clinical reasoning is a skill that needs to be acquired by nurses to render safe and quality care. It requires that the nurse engage in reflective activities to gain insight. This is not a theoretical thing but an empirical way of reasoning and asking questions.
It is the ability of the nurse to check her views as against the evidence available in real life, her being able to change her position from a held view point to another when better explanations are given. Engaging and interacting with patients with concern for their health, Rationalising constantly about the causes of an event not a single cause and giving answers to why and what to do. To be non-judgemental about the actions of patients, assuming the cause but …show more content…
Sad to say that even older nurses do not have this competency and find themselves in legal suits from patients. It ruins the reputation of the profession. For instance, just last year a student was rushed to the university teaching hospital at 5am in the morning. Two nurses were on duty in the accident and emergency unit. All the beds were occupied as at the time. The patient was a university student of the same institution who had a fall in the bath room.
The nurse did not take any history from the friends who brought the young lady to the hospital. She just told them that all the beds were occupied and referred them to other hospitals. She never went to the car to look at the patient before sending them away. If that was done she wouldn’t have sent them back but would have observed the vital signs at least but the patient did not make it to the next hospital and died. This generated a lot of media attack and the students of the university attacked the hospital and destroyed a lot of things out of anger. In this situation the nurse did not use her clinical judgement and lost her job and is being
Clinical reasoning is a skill that needs to be acquired by nurses to render safe and quality care. It requires that the nurse engage in reflective activities to gain insight. This is not a theoretical thing but an empirical way of reasoning and asking questions.
It is the ability of the nurse to check her views as against the evidence available in real life, her being able to change her position from a held view point to another when better explanations are given. Engaging and interacting with patients with concern for their health, Rationalising constantly about the causes of an event not a single cause and giving answers to why and what to do. To be non-judgemental about the actions of patients, assuming the cause but …show more content…
Sad to say that even older nurses do not have this competency and find themselves in legal suits from patients. It ruins the reputation of the profession. For instance, just last year a student was rushed to the university teaching hospital at 5am in the morning. Two nurses were on duty in the accident and emergency unit. All the beds were occupied as at the time. The patient was a university student of the same institution who had a fall in the bath room.
The nurse did not take any history from the friends who brought the young lady to the hospital. She just told them that all the beds were occupied and referred them to other hospitals. She never went to the car to look at the patient before sending them away. If that was done she wouldn’t have sent them back but would have observed the vital signs at least but the patient did not make it to the next hospital and died. This generated a lot of media attack and the students of the university attacked the hospital and destroyed a lot of things out of anger. In this situation the nurse did not use her clinical judgement and lost her job and is being