Assessing

Australian nurses have used the nursing process since the 1980s as a way of systematically thinking about what to do for patients they provide care for. Over time expert clinical nurses and nurse scholars have described the basic process and the terms that name its components in a number of different ways. Yet the nursing process remains a dynamic, cyclic and ongoing process of problem solving in practice. The purpose of the nursing process is to identify a patient's health status and actual or potential health care problems/needs/strengths, to establish plans to meet the identified needs, and to deliver specific nursing interventions to meet those needs. The nurse's evaluation of care will lead to changes in the implementation of care, as the patient's needs change during their stay in hospital with improvement or deterioration in their health status. The nursing process not only focuses on ways to improve the patient's physical needs, but also on social, cultural, emotional and spiritual needs as well. Accordingly, the nursing process is: • cyclic and dynamic • goal directed and patient centred • interpersonal and collaborative • universally applicable • systematic. In this chapter, the patient may be an individual, a family or a group.