The Nursing Process in Action | A Real-Life Nursing Example
Watch on YouTubeVideo summary
The video introduces the nursing process as a systematic framework used in healthcare education, using the relatable analogy of baking a cake to simplify complex concepts for new students. The speaker acknowledges that learners often struggle to understand the necessity of this structured approach but aims to demonstrate its practical application through everyday problem-solving. By comparing clinical scenarios to familiar activities like cooking, the explanation seeks to demystify the five core steps: assessment, problem identification (referred to as nursing diagnosis), planning, implementation, and evaluation, followed by reassessment if goals are not met.
In this specific example, the process begins with an assessment of available resources, such as checking for necessary ingredients and kitchen tools like baking pans and measuring spoons. If items like baking soda or a specific spoon are missing, the speaker identifies these gaps as problems that must be resolved before proceeding. This leads to the planning phase, where one devises a strategy to acquire missing supplies and ensures the oven is functional, effectively creating a roadmap for success. The implementation stage then involves executing the plan by combining wet and dry ingredients, pouring them into the pan, and baking the cake according to the recipe's timeline.
Once the cake is baked, the evaluation phase occurs, where the outcome is measured against the desired goals to determine if it tastes sweet enough, has the right texture, or requires frosting. If the result falls short of expectations, the speaker suggests returning to earlier steps to adjust variables, such as adding more baking soda, reducing sugar, or altering the baking time. This iterative cycle highlights that nursing, like baking, is not a linear one-time event but a continuous loop where unsatisfactory results prompt reassessment and modification of the approach for future attempts.
Ultimately, the video concludes by emphasizing that this structured thinking process extends far beyond the hospital or kitchen, occurring naturally in daily life when navigating traffic, shopping for groceries, or finding optimal routes. The speaker encourages nursing students to recognize that while the terminology may be specific to the profession, the underlying logic of assessment, planning, doing, and evaluating is universal. By mastering this sequence, students can avoid common pitfalls, such as attempting to evaluate a result before ensuring all prerequisites are in place, thereby fostering a disciplined and effective approach to both personal tasks and professional patient care.
Read the full video transcript
Welcome to Nursing School Explained, and
an explanation of the nursing process in
simple terms. If you have just started
nursing school and you're learning about
the nursing process, you're probably
thinking, "Why the heck do I need this?"
And it sometimes can be difficult to
understand why we need it, but I wanted
to give you an example of a real-life um
scenario where you might be actually
using the steps of the nursing process
on a regular basis. And the example that
we're going to go over today is baking a
delicious cake. Now, some of you you
might not be bakers or chefs or cooks,
and that's totally fine, but we're just
going to use that example to go over the
concept of the nursing process. And as
you probably already know, the nursing
process has five steps, which is
assessment, and then either nursing
diagnosis -ish. I kind of cringe when I
hear that word cuz it's so outdated and
old school. I like to call it problem
identification.
Then we go into planning,
implementation, evaluation, and then
back into reassessment if we have
accomplished our goal. So, if we're
trying to bake a cake, we first need to
have an assessment. We have a list of
ingredients and a list of things that
we're going to need to bake, like a
baking form, a cake form, a spring form,
anything that you need, measuring
spoons, those kind of things. So, we're
going to assess our kitchen to see what
do we have available. Do we have all the
ingredients or not? And then do we have
all the utensils I'm going to say that
we're going to need. So, then for
problem identification, we're going to
say, "Well, I'm lacking baking soda and
a teaspoon measuring spoon." So, then
I'm going to have to go get those. So,
now I have identified my problem and I
need to work on getting those resolved
before I can go ahead and get started on
baking this cake. Now, then planning if
I'm lacking a couple of things, I'm
going to need to plan to go to the store
and bring those things to the house so
that then I can go ahead and bake the
cake. But, I also need to plan some time
and making sure that the oven is
functioning and that I have everything
that I need. And then we go into
implementation. So, implementation then
is actually baking the cake because now
I have everything that I need. I'm going
to put all the ingredients together, mix
them up, wet ingredients, dry
ingredients, put them all in a
springform or whatever it is that you're
going to put them, and then you're going
to bake the cake for a certain period of
time.
After that certain period of time,
you're going to evaluate the product and
your cake. Is it good? Is it sweet
enough? Is it fluffy enough? Does it
need any frosting? You're going to see
how good it turned out according to the
recipe. And then if you decide
that the evaluation is not quite
satisfactory, that you haven't
accomplished all the goals, maybe you
need to go back and see, "Hmm, do I need
to maybe add a little bit more baking
soda or a little bit more sweetener or
is it too sweet? Do I need to leave out
some sugar? Do I need to bake it 5
minutes longer or not?" So, this is the
the evaluation phase. And then we go
ahead and we'll reassess because then
we're going to do the whole thing again,
probably not on the same day cuz yeah,
we could, but why would we want to eat
two cakes in one day?
And then we're going to reassess for
next time. Do I have the ingredients?
What have I learned from it? How can I
make it better next time? And this is a
very simplified approach to the nursing
process. You're doing this every day
when you go into the grocery store, when
you're driving in traffic, when you're
trying to find the best route, you're
doing a lot of problem solving already.
This nursing process is just putting it
in nursing terms, but the process is the
same for many different things that we
do on a daily basis. So, just try and
get your thinking around that, and it's
not that complicated. Just make sure
that you follow the different steps each
time, that you know what comes first,
second, third, and that you don't do
anything to evaluate the cake to bake it
before you make sure that you have all
the ingredients ready for home. So,
remember the order of the nursing
process as well. I do have a whole
playlist on nursing fundamentals or
foundations that go into details of the
nursing process, where I go over any
actual nursing related topics or
concepts or problems. So, check those
out, too. Please hit like and subscribe
to my channel, and I'll see you soon.