Clinical Reasoning Cycle for Nursing Students

Running head: CLINICAL REASONING CYCLE 1
Clinical Reasoning Cycle
Name of Author
Institution of Affiliation
Date of Submission

CLINICAL REASONING CYCLE 2
Introduction
Individuals pursuing a nursing course will, at most times, have a positive impact on the
convalescent’s health outcome if they have practical reasoning skills. Oppositely, nursing
practitioners with inferior clinical reasoning skills always have high chances of failing to
recognize the imminent deterioration of the patient’s health either due to drug-body interactions
or normal (Alfaro-LeFevre, 2015). These factors have led to an increase in the number of
accelerating healthcare complaints in the nursing category. Therefore, there was a suggestion to
incorporate the studies on how to manage patients in the nursing department. The studies were to
enhance nursing practitioners with the ability to use various communication channels in order to
deliver the best patient care (Blomdahl et al., 2016).
One of the ways of achieving this was by implementing the clinical reasoning cycle. With
this information in mind, this assessment will use the clinical reasoning cycle in understanding
and planning care for a convalescent named John Gray.
Consider the patient
Considering the case of John Gray, who is 28 years old and single. He was admitted to the
hospital one week earlier after he inflicted harm on himself intentionally. Moreover, John has a
rope burn mark around his neck that occurred after the rope broke when he tried to hang himself.
Besides, due to the fall from the attempted suicide, John Gray incurred some bruising and broken
skin on his legs and arms. Luckily the physical injuries were not that serious and therefore were
covered with a non-adherent dressing and tape.

CLINICAL REASONING CYCLE 3
Collect cues and information
This is another stage of the clinical reasoning cycle that involves gathering data in
consideration to John Gray. Additionally, it also involves analyzing the convalescent’s
information that is accessible from his history, handover reports, nursing notes, and clinical
documentation (Dalton, Gee, & Levett-Jones,2015). From the report, John Gray is under
medication such as Venlafaxine 75 mg bd. The drug (Venlafaxine 75 mg bd) is prescribed to
patients who have suffered from severe depressive episodes. The medication is to prevent the
events from reoccurring to the patient. Therefore, this medication shows that John is suffering
from depression (YAZDANI, HOSSEINZADEH, & HOSSEINI, 2017).
Moreover, John was prescribed with Multivitamin to prevent vitamin deficiency due to
the fact that the handover report suggested that John did not take his breakfast, and he ate almost
nothing at lunchtime. From this medication, we see that John Gray is suffering from vitamin
deficiency.
Additionally, John was also given a daily dosage of vitamin B. The medication is for
patients with depression and anxiety issues. Furthermore, the medication is for convalescents
with physical injuries. From this medication, it is obvious that John Gray has a record of
depression and also suffers from physical injuries.
Apart from this information, recent data collected from observations of John Gray
reflects that: John has a blood pressure of 125/75 mmHg, temperature of 36.3, and a pulse rate of
66. Besides, the information also showed that Gray’s respiratory rate was 18 breaths per minute.

CLINICAL REASONING CYCLE 4
According to (Delany, & Golding, 2014), it is crucial for individuals pursuing a nursing
career or is currently practicing to use the knowledge from therapeutic, physiology, law, and
pathology in matters related the convalescent, in this case, Mr. John Gray. First of all, John Gray
is single. This may be because he is not social or lacks interactive skills following the fact that
the occupational therapist report suggested that John did not take part in any activities, including
one-on-one activity or small group games. Additionally, he also grunted and turned his face to
avoid any contact from the nurse. This suggests that John Gray is not sociable. Additionally, Mr.
John is supposed to inherit the family’s farm, which in fact has been affected severely by the
lasting drought that has hit the community located in the north of Brisbane. This may be related
to depression and stress leading to the lack of appetite.
Process Information
As stated by (Forneris et al., 2015), every convalescent information and cues gathered in
the previous stage are cautiously examined. Any anomaly found is strictly identified and
highlighted. Moreover, every cue recognized is analyzed and concluded after any hypothesis
generated. To put it in simple terms, the patient’s current situation is compared to previous
clinical data presentations. This will enable the nurse to predict possible results in relation to the
available approaches. Therefore, in regards to this information, the nurse has to distinguish the
data of John Gray to normal and abnormal.