Holistic Plan of Care and the Nursing Process
Patients visit health care settings looking forward to comprehensive healing and healthy relationships with health care professionals. As a result, nurses and other practitioners must assess patients’ needs in detail, collaborate as situations oblige, and include patients in decision-making. The case study presents an unfortunate scenario that can cause significant health complications. A holistic plan is crucial to provide comprehensive healing. A holistic approach focuses on treating the entire patient by addressing their emotional, physical, and spiritual needs and other essentials (Davis, 2021). The purpose of this care plan is to outline the essential care components using the nursing process.
The Patient’s Care Plan
A holistic care plan should help the patient to heal and prevent possible health complications from misdiagnosis or wrong medication. The first important step in this scenario is a detailed clinical assessment of the patient’s condition and how suctioning altered the healing process. This intervention typifies the assessment step of the nursing process, which entails gathering and validating the patient’s health data (Toney-Butler & Thayer, 2022). Essential data at this step include possible risks of the suctioning, current patient’s reactions, and feelings. After obtaining this data, diagnoses should follow to help in planning the appropriate interventions to address current and emerging health problems. The next step of the care plan involves implementing the planned care. Here, the patient should be given the necessary medications, attention for emotional and mental support, and supported appropriately to practice spirituality. As Kotwani et al. (2021) noted, a holistic approach enhances healing and promotes comprehensive recovery since health care providers address the patient’s health needs multi-dimensionally. Above all, the patient’s progress should be evaluated to determine whether the pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions applied to support the patient achieved the desired goals. This would be achieved through continuous assessment and communication with the patient.
The Nursing Process and Alignment with Critical Thinking and Clinical Decision-Making
StepDefinitionAlignment with Critical Thinking and Clinical Decision-Making ProcessesAssessmentComprehensively gathering and validating a patient’s health data, concerns, and risks. Data may come directly from the patient, health records, or primary caregivers (Toney-Butler & Thayer, 2022).Critical thinking skills facilitate comprehensive assessment. Such skills include intellectual integrity, courage, and empathy.DiagnosisIt involves analyzing and processing the patient’s data to identity appropriate nursing diagnoses.Nurses should employ clinical judgment to formulate a nursing diagnosis. Critical thinking and clinical reasoning facilitate clinical judgment and enable nurses to make sound, patient-centered decisions (Guerrero, 2019; Van Nguyen & Liu, 2021).PlanningA critical step that entails developing appropriate interventions to address the problem and build on the patient’s strengths.Clinical reasoning is critical since the health options available must be evaluated, prioritized, and developed to achieve positive outcomes.ImplementationThis involves actualizing the health decisions. The nursing interventions are delivered and documented.The nurse must ensure that medications and other interventions are patient-centered, adhere to standard treatment protocols, and are evidence-based (Toney-Butler & Thayer, 2022). Clinical reasoning and critical thinking help nurses carry out nursing interventions as outlined in the care plan.EvaluationEvaluation is primarily about reassessing health interventions to ensure the desired outcomes were met.The nurse applies clinical judgment to determine the care plan’s appropriateness, effectiveness, and efficiency. Nurse-patient collaboration is essential until the episode of care ends.
Conclusion
Health outcomes depend on the interventions that care practitioners use to deliver care. Regardless of the situation, nurses must ensure that patients receive the best care possible by developing a holistic care plan. Such a plan ensures that a patient’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs have been addressed. As detailed in the care plan, a holistic plan will promote the patient’s comprehensive recovery and allow care providers to evaluate each step of the nursing process.
References
Davis, L. E. (2021). A holistic approach to patient care. ILCN. https://www.ilcn.org/a-holistic-approach-to-patient-care/
Guerrero, J. G. (2019). Practice rationale care model: the art and science of clinical reasoning, decision making and judgment in the nursing process. Open Journal of Nursing, 9(2), 79-88. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojn.2019.92008
Kotwani, P., Patwardhan, V., Patel, G. M., Williams, C. L., & Modi, E. (2021). A holistic care approach to combat the COVID-19 disease. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 10(2), 844–849. https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1549_20
Toney-Butler, T. J., & Thayer, J. M. (2022). Nursing process. StatPearls Publishing.
Van Nguyen, T., & Liu, H. E. (2021). Factors associated with the critical thinking ability of professional nurses: a cross‐sectional study. Nursing Open, 8(4), 1970-1980. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.875
Assessment Details
Read the following case study:
You are a staff nurse working in an intensive care unit and assigned to care for a 75-year-old Asian man who had coronary artery bypass graft surgery four days ago. The patient has a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbated by heavy smoking. His postoperative course has been difficult, and he has suffered a number of setbacks. Staff members, despite their diligent efforts, have not been able to wean him off the ventilator since the surgery. He has required frequent suctioning throughout the shift, and he is being evaluated for the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Today, when returning from lunch, you observed that an experienced nurse was suctioning your patient. His secretions were thick, and you observed that the nurse was instilling saline into the patientâ€s endotracheal tube as she was suctioning him. The patient turned red and began coughing, and it was obvious he was in distress.
You asked the nurse why she was instilling saline into his endotracheal tube. She replied that this was being done to loosen the secretions. You told her this was no longer an acceptable practice. She stated that she had many years of critical care experience and she didnâ€t care what anyone said, that the only way you could loosen the patientâ€s secretions would be to instill saline. She also said that would be the last time she would do something for one of your patients while you were at lunch.
Determine a holistic plan of care for this ICU patient described in the case using the nursing process. Be sure to include the entire patient, not just his respiratory status.
Define each step of the nursing process and align each step to critical thinking and clinical decision-making processes.
Format your plan of care as a Word document report, aligning the nursing process steps to the critical thinking and clinical decision-making processes in a table, and include it in your final report. Your report will be delivered to your nursing supervisor for review.
Submit your assignment.
