Clinical Reasoning Cycle

This essay will demonstrate an understanding of the clinical reasoning cycle which describes the procedure by which nurses gather prompts, process the data, come to an understanding of a patient’s problem, design and implement interventions, assess results, and reflect on and learn from the process (Hoffman, 2007; Kraischsk & Anthony, 2001; Laurie et al., 2001). The clinical reasoning cycle consists of five main stages, it comprises of; considering the persons condition, collecting indications and data, processing the information, recognizing problems/issues and detailing the assessment (Levett-Jones 2013). Throughout this essay these five main parts of the clinical reasoning cycle will be discussed and put into context.

The first step of

The nurse needs to describe what focused health assessments they think would best suit the patient. The nurse needs to work out a way in which we can help decrease Alice’s heart rate and blood pressure. To do this the nurse would perform a neurological assessment and a head to toe assessment. These two assessments will give the nurse more information about Alice’s nervous system, if she is in any pain and what further assessments and treatment need to be completed. A neurological assessment is a technique of gaining specific data in relation to the role of a patient’s nervous system (Ruben Restrepo). A head to toe assessment consists of a general safety survey, vital signs, mental status, psychosocial, head, eyes, ears, nose, throat, neck, chest, abdomen, upper and lower extremities, activity, therapeutic devices (Haugh, 2015). The next step is for the nurse is to detail the assessment that she / he will undertake on the

In this circumstance the nurse will perform a neurological assessment first and then a head to toe assessment. The nurse first of all needs to find a space that is private and comfortable before she undertakes the assessment. She needs to use therapeutic communication, build a rapport with Alice, and also have permission from Alice. The nurse needs to complete a number of individual assessments in order to see the function of Alice’s nervous system. Before the nurse can begin she needs to wash her hands and make sure that they are warm before touching Alice. The nurse will check the patient’s pupils, this is done by shining a pen light into the patient’s eyes and checking how the pupils respond, and they should both be of equal size and respond to light. The next step it to complete another Glasgow Coma Scale so that the nurse can measure any changes to Alice’s consciousness. A pain assessment would them be completed on Alice to make sure that she is in no pain and if she is in pain the nurse may need to speak to a doctor regarding what medication she can give to Alice to relieve the pain. A mini-mental status examination will be assessed next. The items of the MMSE include tests of orientation, recall, calculation and attention, naming, repetition, comprehension, reading, writing and drawing (Joseph R. Cockrell and Marshal F. Folstein). The nurse will also need to