Post-Surgical Nursing with Clinical Reasoning

This essay discusses the importance of clinical reasoning in nursing and how to utilize the Levett-Jones model to handle clinical issues. It describes a case of post-surgical nursing and the steps taken to improve the patient's condition. The essay concludes with a reflection on the process and new learning. Subject: Nursing, Course Code: NURS, College/University: Not mentioned.

Running head: POST-SURGICAL NURSING WITH CLINICAL REASONING
Post-Surgical Nursing with Clinical Reasoning
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1POST-SURGICAL NURSING WITH CLINICAL REASONING
Introduction
The term clinical reasoning is used to determine a cognitive process that guides the
practice of nurses and other clinicians. Clinical reasoning determines the way patient
information is collected in a clinical case, processed, integrated with the clinician’s
knowledge and experience, and ultimately comes to an understanding of the issue which is
used to diagnose and manage the patient’s problem (Kriewaldt & Turnidge, 2013). The
nurses then plan and implement interventions, evaluate patient outcomes, and finally reflect
and learn from the whole procedure. Thus, in preparation for clinical reasoning, nursing
students must be provided with opportunities to reflect on and question their assumptions and
prejudices; as failure to do so may negatively impact their clinical reasoning ability and
consequently patient outcomes (Mariani et al, 2013). The following essay will describe the
way of utilizing a clinical reasoning model to handle a clinical issue. Clinical reasoning
model of Levett-Jones, 2018, is used as a framework to plan and evaluate a case of person-
centred care.

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Discussion
Fig. 1: Diagram of Clinical Reasoning Cycle
While clinical reasoning can be broken down into multiple steps, in reality the phases
merge (Kable et al, 2013). Since clinical reasoning is a dynamic procedure, nurses and
clinicians often combine two or more phases or even move back and forth until they get
engaged in a moral reasoning. Clinical reasoning must arise from this engaged, concerned
stance, always in relation to a particular patient and situation.
Patient situation
The patient, Ms Melody King, is a 36 year old woman who has been admitted to the
Emergency department, because she had 2-3 days of severe right lower quadrant (RLQ)
abdominal pain due to peritonitis, followed by ruptured appendix. She had to go through an
immediate laproscopic surgery to remove the ruptured appendix.

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Collected information
Ms Melody has a past medical history of asthma and depression. She takes a few
prescribed medications which include Ventolin, Seretide and Sertraline. Her BP was recorded
to be 95/45 mmHg, heart rate is 120 and body temperature is 38.3°C. Her respiratory rate is
22/min and she is shallow breathing. Her SpO2 is 95%, recorded on room air. Currently she
is suffering from increasing nausea and centralised abdominal pain which she rated 7-8 on a
scale of 0-10. Her physical assessment showed a distended abdomen and generalised
abdominal guarding. To further investigate her condition, few pathological tests were
conducted which revealed a raised WBC count and CRP.
Processing of gathered information
After recording her BP it is evident that she is suffering from hypotension. Her
ruptured appendix may have caused the low BP due to the injury and internal bleeding. Also
post-operative dehydration, the septic shock resulting from peritonitis, or lack of essential
vitamins and minerals in diet can cause low RBC levels in blood and may result in
hypotension (LeMone et al, 2015). The medications she takes for asthma and chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease, are Ventolin and Seretide, which do not pose any severe
adverse effects on the patient. But the antidepressant she takes, Seretide may cause low blood
pressure. Her body temperature is a little high (38.3°C), since temperature over 38°C is
considered as fever. She is feverish probably due to her illness. Since respiratory rate beyond
25 is considered abnormal, her breathing is in the normal range (22/min). Although she is
taking shallow breaths. This is maybe due to the reason that taking deep breaths may cause
pain in her abdomen since she has been diagnosed with abdominal guarding (Liebert et al,
2016). After her physical assessment it was found that she has a distended abdomen, which is
a typical symptom of post-operative dysfunction of her abdomen, such as accumulation of
gas or fluid. After surgery her abdomen has become inflamed and by the most common

4POST-SURGICAL NURSING WITH CLINICAL REASONING
involuntary protective mechanism to prevent pain, the muscles have gotten rigid. This
abdominal rigidity or abdominal guarding is a result of peritonitis. Her centralised pain is due
to the appendicitis, which started off at right lower quadrant, but moved towards her belly
button. This abdominal guarding is maybe the reason behind her increasing nausea as well
(Dalton, Gee & Levett-Jones, 2015). Her pathological reports suggest that she has increased
levels of WBC and CRP, both of which occur in response to inflammation.
Identification of the issues
After the laproscopic surgery the patient’s condition is not quite well. She has several
problems associated with post-surgical trauma. Among those, the three most important issues
that need immediate care are:
 her increasing centralised abdominal pain,
 increasing nausea and
 her low blood pressure
Ms. Melody is suffering from severe hypotension, which may result from various reasons.
Her increased nausea and centralised abdominal pain is due to post-operative inflammation
and guarding of abdomen. Along with these she has slight fever and shallow breathing. Her
increased white blood cell count and C-reactive protein levels is due to the post-surgical
abdominal inflammation.
Establishment of nursing goals
I would like to take proper measures to improve her condition. First her increasing
abdominal pain should be taken into consideration. Medications must be given if needed to
boost her condition. Then I will look into her diet and fluid intake, to develop a better
digestive status and reduce her nausea. Then simultaneously her fluid intake must be
increased over a period of few days, in order to improve her blood pressure.

5POST-SURGICAL NURSING WITH CLINICAL REASONING
Actions Taken
 To raise blood pressure: I will increase her fluid intake in order to raise her blood
pressure. I will look into it that she never stays dehydrated, which may worsen her
condition or even lead to shock. I will maintain her food intake as well; make sure she
eats a vitamin and cooking salt rich diet. I will give her alternatively warm and cold
showers, which will improve her feverish condition and help to balance her BP.
 To improve nausea: Over the next 2 days, I would improve her nausea status. I will
make sure she eats her meals on time, increase her water intake, and give her
medications if the condition doesn’t improve. IV administration of 10-20mg of
metoclopramide may reduce her post-laproscopic nausea status.
 To reduce abdominal pain: For her increasing abdominal pain I will give her IV
pain medications such as opoids, acetaminophen or NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen).
This
will help diminish her abdominal rigidity. When her pain will subside, her nausea will
eventually drop as well.
I will consult with her doctor and ask for permission from the doctor to change her IV
medication rates as needed. I will thoroughly follow any other orders the doctor gives to
improve the patient’s current status (Hunter & Arthur, 2016).
Evaluation of effectiveness
Raising her fluid intake will help with her entire health. Since dehydration causes
many physical abnormalities, if her fluid or water intake is improved most of her problems
will subside. When she will gain a proper water balance in her body, her feverish body
temperature will come down to normal, her nausea will be diminished, and most importantly
her hypotension condition will improve and she will start developing a normal blood pressure

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in a few days (Forsberg et al, 2014). A properly balanced diet is a prerequisite to maintaining
a healthy state of the body. As long as she continues to have a well-balanced, vitamin rich
diet she will develop a much healthier condition (Mather, McKay & Allen, 2015). Her RBC
count will raise, leading to a raise in blood pressure as well. Timely consumption of
proportioned meals will help her get rid of the vomiting tendency and reduce her nauseated
feeling. If these simple measures do not tend to be as effective as needed, then the
medications will surely help with her condition. For betterment of her distended abdomen and
the abdominal guarding condition she must depend solely on medication (Agha et al, 2016).
Even though this is time consuming, inflammation will eventually be reduced by thorough
follow up medications (Posel, Mcgee & Fleiszer, 2015). The more reduction of the
inflammation will take place the more reduced her pain will be, since her abdominal pain is
directly related to the inflammation. After that, her white blood cell count and CRP level will
improve as well.
Reflection on process and new learning
When I reflect on the entire procedure, I think that I should have been able to
determine the appropriate pain medication dosages properly and sooner than I have done this
time. Since Ms King suffered from depression, continuation of her anti-depressants
medication led to an increased nausea. I could have convinced her to not take the anti-
depressants for a few days after the surgery. If I had the chance to consult a dietician, she
could recover much faster with an appropriate diet-plan. If I avail the chance to tend to a
patient with a similar condition, next time I will have more expertise in handling an issue like
that (Victor-Chmil, 2013).

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Conclusion
Clinical reasoning has significant importance regarding the ever increasing numbers
of adverse patient outcomes and escalating healthcare complaints. When nurses are skilled
professionals capable of effective clinical reasoning, they leave a positive impact on patient
outcomes. Critical thinking, application of proper nursing techniques, knowledge about the
ongoing research and developments in practice, and acquiring substantial clinical experience:
all are essential parts of sound clinical judgement. Informed opinions and decisions based on
empirical knowledge and experience are what clinical judgement comprises of. This essay
have been done thoroughly following the Levett-Jones clinical reasoning model, which helps
to diagnose each and every problems associated with the patient. All the effective measures
taken into consideration for improvement of patient’s health status are evaluated for better
outcome. Therefore it can be stated that clinical reasoning capability can be developed with
experience and decision making ability of the nurses in practice and their reflective
potentials.
References
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