Introduction
Nurses are an important part of the decision-making entity in any medical facility. As such, their contribution in making critical decisions regarding the safety and well being of patients is essential. Each patient is always presented in a unique situation and condition; and often, the nurse will find themselves in circumstances they have not particularly encountered before. In such circumstances, formal studies, experience and practice is not enough to make decisions that are critical to a patient’s life – the practitioner may need to think beyond what is conventional. There is always that situation in which the nurse must use extra reasoning for the sake of the patient’s well being. This case study presents an excellent example where an RN is expected to use clinical reasoning.
The patient’s health information
The newborn baby seems to be doing excellent with an Apgar score of 8 at one minute and 10 at five minutes. This shows that at 5 minutes, the infant breathes normally perhaps by crying. The baby’s heart rate is also above 100 beats per minute, which indicates a healthy heart rate (Apgar, 2015). The baby’s skin color is as it should be. The baby also shows positive signs of muscle movement and facial reactions in response to stimuli which are all signs of a baby in good health condition (Kitzinger, 2012).
The mother also demonstrates signs of being in normal conditions. Her wound dressing is dry and in place which signify low risk of bacterial infection (Wu et al., 2014). Her total blood loss of 150ml (less than 4%) during the LUSCS procedure is below the 10-15% serious hemorrhage levels. This indicates that hemostasis was performed properly after the surgery and there is no likelihood of consequential medical difficulties (Connolly et al., 2012). She is still undergoing the effects of the anesthesia, which is normal, although it might need attention if it continues for long. Although her body temperature is slightly lower than normal, it can consider to be within the acceptable lower threshold of 36.5 0C. At rest, her heart rate of 88 bpm is within the normal of 60-100 bpm. The patient’s blood pressure of 104/76 is also normal. Her blood oxygen saturation of 97% is also very normal, which indicates no risk of hypoxia.
Nursing problems based on the assessment of the patient’s data
Perhaps one of the greatest nursing challenges in this case study would be the formulation of non-objective assumptions. The patient information presented above was based on the regular assumptions that most nurses would conclude given the patient data. If there were specific symptoms that would have meant a different health condition for the patient, they probably would not have been factored in the conclusions.
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