Over the years of providing medical services to patients, the individuals who work in the field of medical and health care have developed a nursing process that outlines how patients are given with the care and assistance that they need. If you want to learn more about the nursing process and how the CNAs or Certified Nursing Assistants fit into it, read on.
First off, the medical is generally divided into a number of members: the patient, the doctor, the physician assistant, the nurse and the nursing assistants. The patient would be the one who has the illness or a medical condition which requires care. The doctor would be the one who makes the diagnosis. A physician assistant can also make a diagnosis, but would still be overlooked by the doctor. The same goes for nurses. A nurse can take note of the symptoms and make a preliminary diagnosis but ultimately, it would still be the doctor who would be making a final diagnosis.
Once a patient is admitted to nursing unit such as a hospital, a nursing or a rehabilitation center, the nurses are called to perform several duties to assist the patients in getting better. They usually work based on a nursing process which is divided into five steps: assessment; nursing Diagnoses; planning; intervention; and evaluation. Here are the details for each step of the process.
1. Assessment
This would involve the constant collection of data in order to identify the actual and potential health condition and problems of a patient. Data collection should be done as objectively as possible. In order to perform the assessment, a nurse should: get the nursing history from the patient; perform a thorough physical examination; and review the laboratory and medical information.
2. Nursing Diagnoses
All nurses are given the license to correctly identify and treat specific health problems of patients. Because the only way for a doctor to come up with an effective care and treatment plan is through making a proper diagnosis, it is important that the nurse is able to come up with a nursing diagnosis based on the data gathered in step one. This nursing diagnosis is double-checked by the doctor. CNAs fit into this step, as they are sometimes required to check the condition of the patient and take down notes which are given to nurses.
3. Planning
As all nursing assistants and nurses know, the care plan is the core of the nursing care that they should provide for all patients. It is a legal document which promises care to be delivered as written and nurses could get into a lot of trouble by not following the care plan. It is designed to provide assistance or guide for the members of the medical team to deliver quality and consistent care to patients, as needed. A good care plan should be specific, concise, clear and realistic to make sure that it can be understood not only be doctors, nurses and nursing assistants but also by the relatives of the patient.
When writing the care plan, nurses sometimes ask for the opinion of CNAs so CNAs should be able to offer insights to the patients’ desires and abilities. Because of this, many health and medical facilities today encourage the participation of Certified Nursing Assistants in care plan conferences.
4. Intervention
This step in the nursing process would be where the CNA fits into the most, as the intervention would usually cover the duties of CNAs such as the toileting, repositioning, turning, food administration, bathing to the application of prescribed creams and lotions.
5. Evaluation
As the final step of the nursing process, the evaluation would include the checking done by the nurses to know whether the care plan worked in solving the health issues and problems of the patient.