Prioritization of Care: What You Need to Know

Reflection 

As the charge nurse related to the prioritization of care digital assignment, one of the notable feelings that I had concerning the appointment with that of curiosity. As I engaged in the appointment, I found myself experiencing interest in what was expected of me at different levels. I took note of the fact that the more I became curious about the upcoming levels; I experience a significant impact on my desire to progress further. That may have been driven by the fact that as I moved from level to another, the difficulty of the prioritization increased; thus, creating a situation where I needed to have a higher level of concentration. Additionally, the shift in levels meant that I was expected to work with a higher number of patients, which would help build on my experience in the area of prioritization.

On the other hand, the prioritization of care digital assignment provided me with a clear understanding of how I ought to engage my patients, explicitly focusing on the information that I am expected to record to determine the priority of care. Lake, Moss, & Duke (2009) take note of the fact that prioritization of care allows for improving fairness and equity as part of the delivery process for quality health care services. In my personal experience, through the assignment, I felt that prioritization of care solely focused on a patient’s health condition or issues, which gave me a sense of relief considering that patients with most urgent priorities are treated first. As the charge nurse, I was expected to determine the priority of the patients depending on their health care issues as a way of ensuring that they are accorded the planned care.

Application to Practice 

The first experience that can be applied to practice is on the use of the SBAR in a bid to reflect on specific information that would be of value in prioritization of care. SBAR, which is an acronym for Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation, creates an avenue through which to facilitate prompt and appropriate communication with patients (Thomas, Bertram, & Johnson, 2009). From the assignment, I was able to use this approach in dealing with multiple patients; thus, leading to my belief that it would be of great value in my practice. SBAR will provide me with the expected platform through which to weigh the quality of information to determine patient priority in the area of care.

The other experience that can be applied to practice is on the categorization of patients into two levels of care, which will be of value towards sending patients to the appropriate departments. I hold the view that the classification of patients is essential, considering that it will help in creating an effective platform through which to determine patients with health issues that require immediate considerations. Additionally, this will also help in determining the expected approaches to be considered when dealing with specific patients. These are vital factors that can be applied in practice as a way of improving overall outcomes for patients as a way of improving their health outcomes.

The last experience that can be applied to practice is prioritization of patients into the order of which they should be seen taking into account the information that has been collected. As a nurse, one is expected to prioritize patients depending on the information gathered, which is an experience that can be gained from the assignment. The assignment brings out a transparent approach through which to consider prioritization as a critical factor in determining care outcomes with the intention being towards achieving the best possible results. That is an aspect that I believe would be of value in my practice as a nurse dealing with multiple patients with different health care issues.

References

Lake, S., Moss, C., & Duke, J. (2009). Nursing prioritization of the patient need for care: A tacit knowledge embedded in the clinical decision‐making literature.  International Journal of Nursing Practice ,  15 (5), 376-388.

Thomas, C. M., Bertram, E., & Johnson, D. (2009). The SBAR communication technique: teaching nursing students professional communication skills.  Nurse educator ,  34 (4), 176-180.