What Is Clinical Reasoning Cycle All About? 8 Step Guide Info!
Clinical reasoning is the procedure by which nurses collect cues or hints, process the information about their patients based on them, and come to an understanding of a patient’s problem. It also entails planning and using interventions, assessing outcomes, and reflecting on and learning from the process. It is a stepwise process that every nurse needs to adhere to. Now you may want to know what are the 8 steps of the clinical reasoning cycle.
In a nutshell, these eight steps include look, collect, process, diagnose, plan, act, evaluate, and reflect. We will go into detail about them in this post.
The Importance Of 8-step Clinical Reasoning Process
Patients frequently overlook clinical reasoning, a vital component of healthcare that is essential to their diagnosis and course of treatment. It is the mental process that clinicians, nurses, and other healthcare workers use to assess complicated clinical cases, make prompt and accurate diagnoses, and create treatment plans. This paper examines the value of clinical reasoning in medicine and emphasizes how important it is to patient outcomes. It gives medical professionals the ability to reliably diagnose patients, create efficient treatment programs, and guarantee patient safety.
The Steps In Clinical Reasoning
Now that you understand what clinical reasoning is, in simple words, let’s proceed further. The eight steps in this cycle are as follows:
1. Considering the situation of your patient
This is the looking stage in which the nurse considers the existing patient situation. As soon as you meet a new patient, this looking stage begins. Here is where you must gather all pertinent patient data. You must collect all pertinent information about the patient’s health status. In addition, collect details like their age, the ward to which they are admitted, the time of admission, and the like.
2. Gathering cues and data
During this stage, medical professionals genuinely gather and contrast a patient’s medical history and data. Based on health complaints, current treatment plans, past medical reports, and an ongoing medical statement, they consider the medical history. Pharmacology expertise is used by nurses and clinical staff to assess patients’ conditions and create cues. Inquiring about the patient’s comprehension of the circumstances and the worries of their family or caregiver is another goal of the nurse.
3. Interpreting the information (cues)
This phase is crucial and forms the basis of clinical reasoning. Here, you analyze the patient’s current health status data in light of pathophysiological and pharmacological patterns, identify pertinent details, and forecast possible outcomes for decisions you may make. It is at this crucial point that a professional must apply their knowledge and evaluate the patient’s overall health. This analysis is important because it seeks to identify the solutions to the issues the patient is experiencing.
4. Finding out the problem
You will be able to ascertain the cause of the patient’s present condition with a strong information processing phase. After combining the information, the nurse will draw a conclusive diagnosis. Due to this, it’s critical to concentrate on the information processing phase, as you can only identify the problem’s core cause through investigation. As soon as you have determined the cause, you must state it explicitly. It will catalyze the diagnosis process in the following stages.
5. Setting up goals
Nurses create patient goals and care plans during this phase. The nursing diagnoses that were created in the earlier stage serve as the foundation for these objectives and plans. The objectives of treatment are always time-bound. The medical staff is always informed of the time zone and every step of the treatment plan. Following the development of these plans and goals, nurses must choose interventions that will support their patients in achieving these objectives.
6. Take Action
The clinician will now carry out the procedures required to achieve the patient’s therapy objectives. Naturally, other members of the healthcare team will be involved in this, so everyone should be informed about the specific patient’s treatment goals. They employ the implemented treatment plan to gather affirmative feedback regarding the patient’s well-being. The treatment plan’s goal is also the most crucial thing to accomplish; all team members should be up to date on the most recent information regarding the plan.
7. Assess the outcome
This is the evaluating phase of the clinical reasoning cycle. An experienced nurse uses her clinical reasoning skills, such as critical thinking, in this step. You receive feedback on how well you performed in the preceding phases during the evaluation phase. This is where the treatment’s response is monitored, and any required modifications are made. To assess the efficacy of the treatment, the nurse must keep track of every development and document it.
8. Reflect on the case
In this step of clinical reasoning, you reflect on the whole case. It means using cognitive and meta-cognitive clinical reasoning skills to improve the outcomes of similar cases in the future. In this step, the nurse will ask the following questions.
- What happened, and why it happened?
- What was done?
- Was there a better alternative to what you did?
- What steps you can take to improve the outcomes in the future?
- What could have been done differently?
How Do You Develop Your Clinical Reasoning Skills?
Many diagnostic errors by nurses are made because of inadequate knowledge. In addition, when nurses cannot apply their past knowledge and experience to the current situation, the care outcomes are ineffective. So, you must work on developing your clinical reasoning skills. Use these tips for the same.
Become more aware of what you are doing
You must increase your awareness. To do so, enhance your intention and attention. Intention is a deliberate objective, whereas attention is the capacity to concentrate on a subject without getting sidetracked.
Lack of awareness is one of the most frequent ways that a nurse’s reasoning goes wrong. You may become sidetracked, have your intentions misinterpreted, or do both. When you become more aware, you become more mindful of your endeavors.
Work on improving your relevant knowledge
If nurses cannot retrieve their relevant knowledge, it leads to many diagnostic errors. So, aim to improve the process of recalling and using relevant knowledge. To do so, you may read books like Sahrmann’s Movement System Impairment Syndromes, McKenzie’s Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy, and The Treatment-Based Classification Model.
Test your hypothesis
Testing your hypothesis will help you improve your clinical reasoning skills. To do so, use testing & treatment frameworks. Use preset models of examination and treatment. It will ensure that you don’t need to spend much time thinking about your next step. Make written, well-organized steps that outline the basic examination of every body part. You won’t need to consider what to do next once you’ve committed these to memory.
Concluding Words
We hope that you now have a clear answer to your question what are the 8 steps of the clinical reasoning cycle? This process is key to ensuring proper patient outcomes. It also enhances the skills of the nurse and makes them more competent. If you still have any doubts in your mind, contact us at Assignmenthelpro.