The third ATI learning module was concerning knowledge and judgement in nursing. From this module a nurse can gather the importance on evidence-based practices being applied to the nursing practice. Using evidence-based practices, and clinical judgement ensures the patient will receive quality care. Not only does clinical judgement ensure quality care, but also safe and patient-centered care as well. Knowledge of high importance for a nurse to have and topics to be knowledgeable of are as follows: biological, physical, and social sciences, as well as pathophysiology, and nursing procedures and skills. With this knowledge a nurse will thus be able to promote health, prevent disease, and promote self-efficacy within their patients. Nursing should be able to perform mathematical calculations, utilize technology (internet, electronic medical records, and telehealth), comprehend legal and ethical issues, provide effective communication, and have an understanding of nutrition. Nurses should also have an understanding of learning styles, not only to ensure effective learning for themselves, but also for patient education to ensure patient’s have the effective methods for their style of learning to ensure self-efficacy within the patient and the understanding of the material which was instructed to said patient. This module also placed and importance on critical thinking and clinical reasoning, to ensure when a patient has an issue the nurse can counter this with interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, and explanation, by assessing and compiling data collected from the situation, in order to come to a solution with confidence and quality care.
In the fourth module, priority setting frameworks utilize nursing judgments to address the order in which nursing actions are of high importance. Nurses are able to prioritize the order of nursing actions through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which is structured through five levels. The level of importance from most important to not as high of importance goes as follows physiological, safety and security, love and belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. This being said, a patient with ineffective oxygenation is of higher importance than a patient who is in emotional distress due to a prognosis. Although both patients deserve the attention of the nurse, the patient with ineffective oxygenation is the priority of the nurse. The module also discusses the Nursing Process which involves analysis, nursing diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Utilizing this process ensures the patient has patient-centered and high-quality care. As the nurse assesses the patient, determines the needs of said patient, plans how to meet said needs, implements said plan, and then evaluates if the patient’s needs have been met. In reference to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, one assessment that is of high importance is the ABCs: Airway, Breathing, and Circulation. any alteration in any of these areas could thus, be life-threatening. Thus, this assessment is essential in ensuring patient-centered and quality care as if this is neglected could result in serious complications. Another area that is discussed in this module is safety and risk reduction, which assigns priority to a factor of a situation that results in a risk to the patient’s physical or psychological well-being. There is also an importance on providing interventions or procedures which are “least restrictive/least invasive” to ensure patient-centered care. Least restrictive interventions attempt to accomplish safety interventions without the utilization of restraints, this can be achieved through frequent rounding or utilization of family members involvement in care. Reducing the number of invasive procedures thus reduces the number of infections acquired within the facility as well as the patient’s risk as well. In summary, this module emphasizes the importance of effective and quality patient-centered care through the prioritization of the patient’s needs through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, safety and risk reduction, as well as ensuring the least restrictive and least invasive procedures are implemented.
