From patient days to weighted patients: Developing better nursing workload measures

Current trends in nursing include:

Trends in nursing are multifactorial and associated with changes in society, within the nursing profession, and in other professions. Notably, telehealth and remote nursing contribute to successful healthcare delivery for numerous patients and help reduce stress for nurses due to nursing shortages. Nurses can reach patients, monitor their conditions, and interact with them using computers, audio, visual accessories, and telephones—for example, remote patient monitoring systems. Likewise,...

The planning phase of the nursing process helps nurses set priorities, outline patient-centered goals and expected outcomes, and tailor nursing interventions to align with the aligned care plan. Through the planning phase, the nurse applies critical thinking skills to align and develop interventions according to the patient's needs. It provides continuity of care allowing patients to receive the maximum benefit from treatment. It serves as a pilot plan for allocating individual staff to a...

Implementation is the execution of the nursing care plan developed during the planning phase.
The five steps to implementing effective nursing care include reassessing the patient, reviewing and revising the existing nursing care plan, organizing the resources and care delivery, anticipating and preventing complications, and implementing nursing interventions.

The two sources for collecting information are primary and secondary. After gathering information, interpretation and validation help to complete the data. The purpose of assessment is to establish data with the initial information, to interpret data about the patient's perceived needs and health problems, and to respond to these problems identified.
The nurse collects all aspects of the patient's health in the initial assessment, establishing priorities for ongoing focused assessments...

A nursing care plan can present in two forms: informal and formal. Informal is a care plan for the individual use of the nurse and goals they wish to accomplish during their shift. Informal care plans are not included in the patient chart. A formal nursing care plan is a written or computerized guide that organizes patient care. It is further subdivided into two: standardized and individualized care plans. Standardized care plans are pre-populated care plans for specific patient populations,...