How to Prioritize Nursing Care
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How to Prioritize Nursing Care
Ashley Williams
Chamberlain College of Nursing
Professor Theresa Conte
Semester I
How to Prioritize Nursing Care It is important for a nurse to provide careful attention to every task, so prioritizing your daily agenda will promote efficiency and allow time to fulfill all duties. Each day nurses attend to several different patients who, in most cases, have just experienced a traumatic situation. Unpredictable circumstances can easily heighten stress levels and with a noticeable shortage of nurses on top of family involvement; situations can also become uncontrollable (Lake, 2009.) Clinical settings are a competing environment for everyone affected so disruptions will occur even if you commit to a steady pace. In any event, a better understanding of how to address each interaction will assist in giving optimal care to your patient. Prioritization is defined as an ability to identify the significance of a circumstance, recognize the options that are available, and fully execute. Controversy may lie in what a nurse classifies as important because isn’t a single approach to every situation (Lake, 2009). However, in any case, a patient in pain is always top priority. Undoubtedly, confidence is key - your decisions affect the patient’s well-being. Certainly, it’s not uncommon for a nurse to fall behind on their tasks but they will “work to achieve emergent order in these situations through nursing prioritization of the patient need for care” (Lake, 2009). Constant reorganizing and reprioritizing tasks make it difficult to maintain procedural guidelines but a nurse always exercises safety over speed. In recent years, nursing education schools have been called into question for their recruitment of poor quality candidates who lack an understanding to satisfy even the most basic skills (Lake, 2009). Due to this, most clinical settings implement weekly group meetings and encourage daily feedback. Overall,
How to Prioritize Nursing Care
Ashley Williams
Chamberlain College of Nursing
Professor Theresa Conte
Semester I
How to Prioritize Nursing Care It is important for a nurse to provide careful attention to every task, so prioritizing your daily agenda will promote efficiency and allow time to fulfill all duties. Each day nurses attend to several different patients who, in most cases, have just experienced a traumatic situation. Unpredictable circumstances can easily heighten stress levels and with a noticeable shortage of nurses on top of family involvement; situations can also become uncontrollable (Lake, 2009.) Clinical settings are a competing environment for everyone affected so disruptions will occur even if you commit to a steady pace. In any event, a better understanding of how to address each interaction will assist in giving optimal care to your patient. Prioritization is defined as an ability to identify the significance of a circumstance, recognize the options that are available, and fully execute. Controversy may lie in what a nurse classifies as important because isn’t a single approach to every situation (Lake, 2009). However, in any case, a patient in pain is always top priority. Undoubtedly, confidence is key - your decisions affect the patient’s well-being. Certainly, it’s not uncommon for a nurse to fall behind on their tasks but they will “work to achieve emergent order in these situations through nursing prioritization of the patient need for care” (Lake, 2009). Constant reorganizing and reprioritizing tasks make it difficult to maintain procedural guidelines but a nurse always exercises safety over speed. In recent years, nursing education schools have been called into question for their recruitment of poor quality candidates who lack an understanding to satisfy even the most basic skills (Lake, 2009). Due to this, most clinical settings implement weekly group meetings and encourage daily feedback. Overall,
References: Lake, Sarah, Cheryle Moss, and Jan Duke. "Nursing prioritization of the patient need for care: A tacit knowledge embedded in the clinical decision-making literature." International Journal of Nursing Practice 15.5 (2009): 376-388. EBSCO. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.