ASSESSMENT 1 – STRUCTURED ESSAY
Word Count: 1200 words. Weighting 30%
Rationale:
Effective clinical decision-making is fundamental to competent nursing practice and the provision of safe, high quality care. It is essential that nurses are competent in patient assessment, and the appropriate use of health information technologies, to ensure accuracy of assessments, recognise patient deterioration, and to make appropriate clinical decisions to ensure patient safety and prevent adverse events (Dalton, Harrison, Malin & Leavey, 2018; Razieh, Somayeh & Fariba 2018).
Aim:
The aim of this assessment task is for students to demonstrate understanding of factors that influence clinical decision-making in a nursing context, and the potential impact of health technologies on the quality of patient health assessment and thus quality of clinical decisions.
TASK DESCRIPTION:
For this task you need to write a 1200-word structured essay. There are TWO parts to this essay detailed below:
PART A:
(400 words) Multiple factors influence clinical decision-making for nurses.
For this part:
• Describe one key factor that influences clinical decision making in the context of your work environment, and discuss how this influences nursing clinical-decision making.
PART B:
(800 words) In healthcare, a range of Health Information Technologies are used to support patient safety and quality of care.
For this part:
• Identify and discuss at least one technology (technological devices / equipment / processes) commonly used by nurses in relation to patient assessment and care.
• Discuss the potential impact (positive / negative) in relation to quality of clinical patient assessment and nursing clinical decisions.
Categories
Effective clinical decision-making is fundamental to competent nursing practice and the provision of safe, high quality care.
