The Nursing Process Model

In England alone in 2011 there were 14.9 million finished patient admission episodes in National Health Service hospitals with 5.2 million being emergency admissions (The Health and Social Care Information Centre, 2012). It may seem such a large number however nurses must treat each patient in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) code of conduct which writes that nurses must treat patients as individuals (NMC, 2008). Holland, Jenkins, Solomon and Whittam (2008) claims a successful patient’s outcome is dependent on the nurse’s ability and skills to use the knowledge acquired on assessment effectively. The nursing process when adapted in practice defines the stages a nurse should follow in order to provide individualised care (Barrett, Wilson and Wollands, 2009). A nursing model then provides nurses with the structure to effectively assess patients’ needs holistically by showing how it should be done. This essay will look at how nursing knowledge contributed to the care of a chosen patient and an
Swearingen (2004) identified that a knowledgeable patient is more likely to comply with interventions therefore I actively involved John and his daughter in the care planning process and we set goals to be achieved.
McCaffery (1968, p.95) defined pain as “whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever the experiencing person says it does”. This definition recognises that pain is a personal experience which is only known to the individual experiencing it (Schofield, 2008). This is significant because it highlights that in order to achieve effective pain control the patient’s self-report forms a fundamental part of the pain