The purpose of this written assignment is for students to explore and critically analyse how an effective clinical reasoning process can support health care practitioners to reach a diagnosis for their patient.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this written assignment is for students to explore and critically analyse how an effective clinical reasoning process can support health care practitioners to reach a diagnosis for their patient. In Part A students will appraise the concept of clinical reasoning and the impact of history taking. In Part B, using a specific example from practice, students will explore the factors that contribute to their patient’s health condition or diagnosis.

Part A

METHODS

1. Define clinical reasoning.
2. Discuss how clinical reasoning can support registered nurses to reach a patient diagnosis
3. Critically appraise how history taking can impact the clinical reasoning process.

Please note specific patient examples are not required here. The literature should be appraised to explore how aspects of the patient interaction can impact the building of an effective therapeutic relationship. A holistic approach to the interaction should be considered when exploring these aspects.

Part B

METHODS

1. Identify a patient that you have conducted a systematic and comprehensive clinical assessment on.
2. Succinctly introduce the patient’s pseudonym, age, gender, ethnicity, presenting complaint and comprehensive health history (refer to Patient Assessment Tool attached) and diagnosis. 
3. Discuss the relevant risk factors identified in the health history of the patient and how they link to their diagnosis with support from current academic literature.

Format:           Written Assignment

Word limit:     1500 -1650 (including in-text references). Do not exceed this.

The Marking rubric is attached as a PDF. Please refer to that.