Nursing Professionalism and the Nursing Process

Vocabulary flashcards covering the history of nursing, professional behaviors, professional standards, and the nursing process steps and concepts.

Florence Nightingale

The first practicing epidemiologist who organized the first school of nursing, improved sanitation in battlefield hospitals, and established foundational nursing practices.

Army Nurse Corps

The nursing corps unit established within the United States military in 1901.

Mary Adelaide Nutting

The first professor of nursing at Columbia University, appointed in 1906.

Navy Nurse Corps

The nursing corps unit established within the United States military in 1908.

ANA Center for Ethics & Human Rights

An organization established in 1990 by the American Nurses Association to address ethical standards and issues in nursing.

Profession

An occupation requiring extended education, a defined body of knowledge, provision of a specific service, autonomy, responsibility, accountability, and adherence to a code of ethics.

Work Ethic

A belief in the importance and moral worth of work, characterized by diligence, focus, accountability, self-discipline, and a positive attitude.

Punctuality

The quality or habit of being on time for work responsibilities.

Insubordination

The refusal to complete a task as assigned by a supervisor, which serves as legal grounds for dismissal.

Abuses of Power

Attempts to use position or authority to shame, control, demean, humiliate, or denigrate another person to gain emotional, psychologic, or physical advantage.

Burnout

A complex syndrome of behaviors similar to the exhaustion stage of general adaptation syndrome, characterized by feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, physical/emotional exhaustion, and a negative attitude.

Standards of Practice

The competent level of nursing care demonstrated through six specific steps: Assessment, Diagnosis, Outcomes Identification, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation.

Standards of Professional Performance

Expected professional behaviors of a nurse encompassing Ethics, Education, Evidence Based Practice, Quality of Practice, Communication, Collaboration, Practice evaluation, Resource utilization, and Environmental health.

Critical Thinking

A continuous process characterized by open-mindedness, continual inquiry, and perseverance, combined with a willingness to evaluate patient data and determine which assumptions are true and relevant.

Nursing Process

A variation of scientific reasoning consisting of systematic steps that allow nurses to organize care and conduct practice systematically.

ADPIE

An acronym for the five traditional steps of the nursing process: Assessment, Nursing Diagnosis, Plan, Implementation, and Evaluation.

AAPIE

An acronym representing the clinical judgement adaptation of the nursing process: Assessment (Recognize cues), Analyze (Analyze cues & prioritize), Plan (Generate solutions), Implementation (Take action), and Evaluation.

Assessment

The deliberate and systematic collection of information about a patient to determine their current and past health, functional status, and coping patterns.

Medical Diagnosis

The identification of a disease condition based on a specific evaluation of physical signs, symptoms, medical history, and diagnostic test results.

Nursing Diagnosis

A clinical judgement concerning a human response to health conditions/life processes, or a vulnerability for that response, by an individual, family, or community.

Problem-Focused Nursing Diagnosis

A clinical judgement concerning an undesirable human response to a health condition or life process that currently exists for the patient and is supported by observable cues.

Risk Nursing Diagnosis

A clinical judgement concerning the vulnerability of a patient for developing an undesirable human response to a health condition.

Health Promotion Nursing Diagnosis

A clinical judgement concerning a patient's motivation and desire to increase well-being and actualize human health potential.

SMART Goals

Criteria ensuring patient outcome goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timed.

Independent Nursing Interventions

Nurse-initiated actions performed without supervision or direction from others, typically centered around ADLs and health education.

Dependent Nursing Interventions

Actions that require an explicit order from a health care provider, such as administering medications or placing an IV line.

Collaborative Interventions

Therapies and interventions that require the combined knowledge, skill, and expertise of multiple healthcare professionals.

Implementation

The fourth step of the nursing process involving initiating the care plan, executing interventions, delegating tasks, and carrying out continuous assessment.

Evaluation

The final phase of the nursing process where client outcomes are continually measured to determine whether goals were achieved or if the care plan requires modification.

Gordon's Functional Health Patterns

A holistic nursing assessment framework comprising 11 health patterns used to organize client data and formulate nursing diagnoses.

Clinical Judgement Models Comparison

A comparative crosswalk mapping components across the NCSBN Clinical Judgment Measurement Model, the Nursing Process (AAPIE), and the Tanner Model.