Assignment: Urine Specific Gravity NURS 800

What is Urine Specific Gravity?

Although the five steps of the nursing process may flow naturally for experienced nurses, one should never become complacent. All nurses must ensure that this stepped approach is embedded in their practice. While there may be a sense of repetition with post-operative routines, each patient is a unique individual in how they present and respond to a surgical procedure. The nursing process is an invaluable tool that helps us to not lose sight of this central fact. Application of the nursing process supports high-quality patient care and helps nurses avoid falling into the trap of a reactive and task-focused approach to care.

In the stressful environment of acute health care, there is risk for gaps in situational awareness related to human factors, cognitive overload, interruptions, and distractions. However, the nursing process can help us maintain vigilance in our focus on patient safety and optimal care outcomes (Ead, 2015). We are seeing the use of technology in facilitating early identification and communication of clinical complications. Electronic documentation tools can allow input of the patient assessment to provide a calculated score, which triggers the appropriate action based on the severity of the score. For example, if the nurse inputs a low pulse, blood pressure, and level of consciousness, the calculated score indicates that communication with the physician and/or medical emergency team is warranted. These early warning systems align with the nursing process and support excellent patient care.

Nursing staff collaborate with many health care disciplines and act as gatekeepers for the patient’s well-being. As the length of patient stay in hospital continues to shorten while our patient population ages and becomes more complex, it is vital that nurses maintain the basic principles taught in college and university. While the literature does not offer clear guidance with respect to the optimal frequency of monitoring post-operative vital signs, the nursing process provides direction to continually assess, plan, implement, and reassess the patient’s status.-