Nursing Foundations: Core Concepts and Principles

• Nursing foundations encompass the fundamental principles, concepts, and skills essential for providing competent and holistic nursing care.
• Serves as the bedrock upon which nurses build their knowledge and practice.

Core Concepts in Nursing Foundations

• Person: Focuses on the individual receiving care, emphasizing their unique needs, values, and preferences.
• Health: Encompasses the physical, mental, and social well-being of the individual, not merely the absence of disease.
• Environment: Includes all internal and external factors that can affect the person's health.
• Nursing: The art and science of caring for individuals, families, and communities to promote, maintain, or restore health.

Key Principles of Nursing Practice

• Patient-Centered Care: Providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values, ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.
• Holism: Considering the whole person, integrating the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions of care.
• Safety: Minimizing risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance.
• Evidence-Based Practice: Integrating the best current evidence with clinical expertise and patient/family preferences and values for optimal health care.
• Quality Improvement: Using data to monitor the outcomes of care processes and using improvement methods to design and test changes to continuously improve the quality and safety of health care systems.
• Communication: Essential for building trust, establishing therapeutic relationships, and coordinating care.
• Ethics: Adhering to moral principles and professional codes of conduct to ensure ethical decision-making and protect patient rights.

Essential Nursing Skills

• Assessment: Systematically collecting and analyzing data about the patient's health status.
  • Includes physical examination, interviewing, and reviewing medical records.
• Nursing Diagnosis: Identifying actual or potential health problems based on the assessment data.
  • Focuses on the patient's response to illness or life situations.
• Planning: Developing a plan of care that outlines specific goals and interventions to address the patient's needs.
  • Should be individualized and based on evidence-based practice.
• Implementation: Carrying out the planned interventions in a safe and effective manner.
  • Includes providing direct care, educating patients and families, and coordinating care with other healthcare professionals.
• Evaluation: Assessing the effectiveness of the interventions and modifying the plan of care as needed.
  • Involves reassessing the patient's condition and determining whether the goals have been met.

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

• Health promotion involves activities aimed at improving or maintaining health.
• Disease prevention focuses on strategies to reduce the risk of developing illnesses.
• Nurses play a crucial role in educating individuals and communities about healthy lifestyles, preventive screenings, and risk reduction behaviors.

Communication Skills in Nursing

• Therapeutic communication is a process in which the nurse consciously influences a patient or helps the patient to a better understanding through verbal and nonverbal communication.
• Active listening: Paying close attention to what the patient is saying, both verbally and nonverbally.
• Empathy: Understanding and sharing the feelings of another person.
• Respect: Valuing the patient's beliefs, values, and experiences.
• Honesty: Being truthful and sincere in communication.
• Providing information: Giving patients clear and accurate information about their health condition and treatment options.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

• Nurses are accountable for their actions and must adhere to legal and ethical standards of practice.
• Scope of Practice: Defined by state regulations and outlines the boundaries of what nurses are legally allowed to do.
• Negligence: Failure to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in similar circumstances.
• Malpractice: Professional negligence that results in harm to the patient.
• Informed Consent: Obtaining permission from the patient before performing any procedure or treatment.
• Confidentiality: Protecting the patient's private information.
• Advance Directives: Legal documents that allow patients to express their wishes regarding healthcare decisions in the event they are unable to do so themselves.
• Code of Ethics: A set of principles that guide nurses in making ethical decisions.

Documentation in Nursing

• Accurate and complete documentation is essential for communication, continuity of care, and legal protection.
• Documenting assessments, nursing diagnoses, interventions, and evaluations.
• Using clear, concise, and objective language.
• Charting in a timely manner.
• Protecting patient confidentiality.

Infection Control

• Infection control practices aim to prevent the spread of infections in healthcare settings.
• Hand hygiene: The single most important measure to prevent the spread of infection.
• Standard Precautions: Applying to all patients, regardless of suspected or confirmed infection status.
• Transmission-Based Precautions: Used in addition to standard precautions for patients with known or suspected infections.
• Proper handling and disposal of sharps and contaminated materials.

Safety and Body Mechanics

• Proper body mechanics are essential to prevent injuries to both nurses and patients.
• Using proper lifting techniques.
• Maintaining good posture.
• Utilizing assistive devices when needed.
• Creating a safe environment for patients by preventing falls, injuries, and other hazards.

Basic Physiological Needs

• Oxygenation: Ensuring adequate oxygen supply to tissues and cells.
• Nutrition: Providing adequate nutrition and hydration.
• Elimination: Promoting regular bowel and bladder function.
• Rest and Sleep: Facilitating adequate rest and sleep.
• Hygiene: Maintaining cleanliness and comfort.
• Activity and Exercise: Encouraging physical activity and exercise.
• These needs are fundamental to life and must be addressed in nursing care.

Pharmacology Basics

• Understanding drug classifications, routes of administration, dosages, and side effects.
• Administering medications safely and accurately.
• Monitoring patients for therapeutic and adverse effects.
• Educating patients about their medications.

Wound Care

• Assessing and managing wounds to promote healing and prevent infection.
• Cleaning and dressing wounds.
• Monitoring for signs of infection.
• Providing patient education on wound care.

Asepsis

• Asepsis is the absence of pathogenic microorganisms
• Medical asepsis (clean technique) includes procedures used to reduce the number of organisms present and prevent the transfer of organisms
• Surgical asepsis (sterile technique) includes procedures used to eliminate all microorganisms from an area