Essay --

Prioritizing care is one of the first things that nurses learn in their career. Prioritizing requires critical thinking whether it comes to discharging a patient, caring for a patient, or delegating a task to a LPN or CNA. As the charge nurse they must look at the whole picture and not just the tasks that need to be done. The charge nurse is the one makes the assignments for the individual nurses, so if there happens to be a float nurse from a different department they might give them the patients with the lowest acuity depending on the nurse’s experience. The charge nurse must know which patients could be discharged if there was an emergency to arise or not enough hospital beds for those patients who need to be admitted. For example, the nurse is not going to recommend someone who came in with a heart attack; they would most likely recommend someone who is two days post op and is being discharged to a rehab facility in a couple of days. It is the charge nurses duty to make t hat everyone providing great and safe care to the patient. Prioritization is to make sure that the patient receives safe and quality care. A nurse would prioritize care of a patient based on their individual needs. The nurse uses critical thinking to determine what issues need to be addressed first, such as assessing the patients respirations, circulation, neurosensory, food and fluid intake, bowel and bladder eliminations, comfort, rest, sleep, safety, activity, hygiene, significant relationships, ego, integrity and sexuality. The first level of prioritizing to makes sure that the patient’s ABC’s are not compromised. ABC’s refer to airway, breathing, and circulation. The nurse is going to take care of a patient who is having trouble breathing or does not... ...ing student would take the patient to the bathroom, while they are in there get pain meds for my other patient, get the first patient back to bed, check in on the patient that is doing well and let them know I would be back with their meds shortly, go talk to family, and then do the discharge. Its basic and one piece could turn around that whole scenario. With prioritization this can also help the nurse save time, because then one knows how much time is needed for each task that needs to be done. In conclusion prioritizing in nursing is important to insure the patient safety, by ensuring their safety, they are not only ensuring proper care, they are making sure that everything following their care is done properly and that the right tasks are being delegated to the proper person, so proper care is given at proper time and they are always acting as patient advocate