Students will be required to submit a structured essay based on one of the three scenarios available to them in advance relating to assessment and care Process for the acutely ill person.
Using the information in the scenario the essay will examine the students’ knowledge and skills necessary to assess and deliver safe and effective care when a person is acutely ill, with reference to the patient’s underlying pathophysiology, relevant clinical guidance and legal/ethical frameworks. It will appraise student’s ability to recognise people who are acutely ill and at risk of deteriorating, undertake timely structured assessments, interpret clinical data and use situational judgement to escalate findings, prioritise care needs and to plan, deliver and evaluate evidence-based, person-centred care as part of the interdisciplinary team.
Introduction (approx. 250 words)
Your introduction should include the following:
A brief overview of the scope of the structured essay (what do you intend to do), identification and rationale for using a structure ABCDE approach.
Provide a short overview of the patient’s diagnosis, including relevant pathophysiology.
Include the aspects of the clinical assessment you are going to address, providing rationale for the assessment model
Identify the ethical-legal principles that will apply to the clinical assessment scenario
Main body(approx. 2000 words)
This section should address the module learning outcomes of the module
Learning Outcome 1: Apply a structured assessment approach to recognise the acutely ill person or when a person’s condition is at risk of deterioration. This means you should use the principles of ABCDE assessmentto establish the acute condition of the person or to assess if they are at risk of deteriorating. Identify normal and abnormal signs and symptoms. For example: Aiirway: how is his airway? is it pattent? Breathing: Is he tachypneic and Hypoxic? Circulation, Disability and Exposure.
Learning Outcome 2: Interpret assessment data in relation to pathophysiology and commonly encountered health conditions and use situational judgement to escalate findings and prioritise. This means, explain any abnormal signs/symptoms. Link the abnormal signs and symptoms to the patient’s diagnosis and the underlying pathophysiology and/or compensatory mechanisms. With reference to evidence based literature, you should analyse the assessment data to plan the next steps of their care in terms of medical or surgical interventions and involvement of the multi-disciplinary team. For example: why is his airway pattent, why is he tachypneic?
Learning Outcome 3: Appraise evidence-based, person-centred nursing care and evaluation strategies for an acutely ill person. This means you should examine your clinical assessment of the acutely ill person and your interpretation of the assessment data. Discuss the relevant interventions, treatment, including further investigations that the patient requires. Your plan of care should be related to the patient in the scenario. You must provide a rationale for each intervention,management and evaluation of care. Provide rationale, with reference to supportive literature and relevant clinical guidelines (such as those produced by NICE, the UK Sepsis Trust, BTS, JBDS etc.) For example: for Airway the Intervention is : look, listen and feel and give the rationale.
Learning Outcome 4: Examine the effectiveness of strategies used to communicate and work in partnership with people, families, carers and members of the interdisciplinary team. This means you should examine the efficacy of any strategies to communicate with the acutely unwell patient as he is in hospital he may feel anxious, for example Simple Skills Secrests modeland active listeningare the strategies to communicate with patient and any significant others e.g next of kin, carers. For the multi-disciplinary team the use of SBAR comunication tool, how we can implement this.
Learning Outcome 5: Apply ethical-legal principles to the care of the acutely ill person. This means that you should discuss capacity issues with reference to legal and ethical frameworks. Identify the ethical-legal principles that applied to the clinical assessment scenario and analyse the rationale as to why these principles should be applied. Discuss how you will utilise communication strategies and the ethico-legal principles that apply to the care of an acutely ill person. For example: Consent, Mental capacity Act, Autonomy, etc.
Provide a brief overall evaluation of the ABCDE assessment activity.
Conclusion (approx. 250 words)
Provide an overall conclusion that refers to the evidence and effectively concludes your discussion and arguments. Briefly discuss the importance of assessment, intervention and escalate findings. Briefly summarise the importance of using a systematic approach to prioritise care needs and to plan, deliver and evaluate evidence-based, person-centred care as part of the interdisciplinary team.
Drawing conclusions about the activity whether arguments put forward are valid, evidence based and justifiable
