PGIMER Chandigarh NO - 2015
Nursing Foundation
Easy

Priorities of assessment & planning in Nursing process is based on:

Appeared in: PGIMER Chandigarh NO - 2015

Explanation

  • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides a systematic framework for prioritizing patient care.
  • It establishes that basic physiological needs essential for survival (like airway, breathing, and circulation) must be addressed before higher-level needs.
  • This model helps nurses make critical decisions, especially in acute care settings, by focusing on life-threatening issues first, followed by safety, and then psychosocial needs.
  • The hierarchy progresses from Physiological needs to Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem, and finally Self-Actualization.

Why Other Options Were Wrong

  • Option B: The 'Dangers of illness model' is not a recognized or standard theoretical framework used for prioritization in the nursing process. It is a distractor.
  • Option C: Hildegard Peplau's Interpersonal Theory focuses on the phases and therapeutic nature of the nurse-patient relationship. It does not provide a hierarchical structure for prioritizing different types of patient needs.
  • Option D: Dorothea Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory is used to determine the extent to which a patient is unable to care for themselves and to define the level of nursing intervention required. It focuses on the patient's ability to perform self-care, not on prioritizing a list of needs.

Related Visual

Visual explanation — Related Visual
Clinical Relevance
  • Nursing practice connection: Use the key finding related to Prioritization Frameworks in the Nursing Process to guide bedside assessment, documentation, and the next nursing action.
  • In daily practice, nurses constantly use Maslow's hierarchy to triage tasks. For example, a nurse will administer pain medication (physiological need) to a post-operative patient before providing discharge teaching (a higher-level need).
  • During an emergency, such as a patient experiencing respiratory distress, the ABCs (Airway, Breathing, Circulation) derived from the physiological needs level become the absolute and immediate priority over all other concerns.
  • What if? If a patient is physiologically stable but has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness and is expressing feelings of hopelessness, the priority may shift from basic physical care to addressing the 'Safety' need (preventing self-harm) and 'Love/Belonging' (providing emotional support and connecting them with family).
How to Approach the Question
  • First, identify the core concept of the question, which is about the basis for 'priorities' in the nursing process.
  • Recognize that the question is asking for a foundational theory or model.
  • Evaluate the given options, which are all different nursing theories.
  • Recall the fundamental principles of each theory. Maslow's theory is uniquely characterized by its hierarchical structure of human needs.
  • Connect the concept of 'hierarchy' directly to the concept of 'prioritization'. A hierarchy naturally creates an order of importance.
  • Eliminate the other options by identifying their primary focus: Peplau's theory is about relationships, and Orem's is about self-care deficits. Neither is primarily a model for ranking all patient needs.
Concept Tested & Keywords
  • Concept Tested: Prioritization Frameworks in the Nursing Process
  • Stem keywords: Priorities, assessment & planning, Nursing process
  • Lead-in keywords: based on

Question ID

Q3zkVYp7gbKk1snSq0y9p3

Reference Book

E6 Nursing Fundamentals Potter Perry 12e Part 1 pp. 91-93, 66-68

E6 Nursing Fundamentals Taylor p. 1055-1057

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