What is personal judgement? How can it help me interpret and follow official guidelines? How can I use it successfully in my daily practice? Rules and codes for healthcare professionals continue to proliferate yet are unable to offer practical advice in specific circumstances. To help balance official rules with the variable, unique human element, David Seedhouse and Vanessa Peutherer explain what personal judgement is and how it can be applied routinely and effectively in everyday decision-making in healthcare. Through the use of over 40 interactive scenarios drawn from real-life practice, the authors encourage you to use a range of techniques to boost your personal judgement, introducing different models and approaches to decision-making and exploring their strengths as well as their limitations. The authors then talk you through their own suggestions for solving commonplace but challenging healthcare problems.

Assessment is an essential part of mental-health nursing and as such a core learning requirement for pre-registration nursing students. Getting assessment right is essential for the nursing student in order for them to become an effective practitioner. Many books on assessment are very theoretical. This is a practical, hands-on guide to the assessment process, underpinned by the latest evidence. The book explains the core principles through running case studies, so that readers can see how each decision they make impacts on the person in their care. Key features: Assessment principles are applied across a variety of modern nursing settings that you may find yourself working in as a registered nurse Each chapter is linked to the relevant NMC standards and Essential Skills Clusters so you know you are meeting the professional requirements Activities throughout help you to think critically and develop essential graduate skills.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

The fourth edition of this bestselling textbook builds your skills for accurate, person-centred assessment and care planning. Working step-by-step through the process, it equips you with practical assessment tools and models for care planning. Its holistic approach helps you to think in the round about an individual’s physical health, mental health and other needs, as well as the broader social and environmental factors that influence their lives and care. Fully updated in line with contemporary evidence-based practice, this book will support you through your assignments, placements and into your nursing career. Key features: • Each chapter is mapped to the 2018 NMC Standards • Introduces commonly used assessment tools alongside broader considerations, including preventative healthcare assessment and acting in a patient′s best interests. • Scenarios and case studies illustrate theory, principles and complex assessment • Develops the critical thinking and decision-making skills which are essential for effective practice

At a time when accountability and the avoidance of risk are increasingly demanded of social workers, the ability to make clear and informed decisions is essential. This book, written for practicing social workers undertaking their ASYE and compulsory CPD, has been designed to help professionals make sound judgments in increasingly complex contexts and under pressure. The focus is on empowering front-line professionals through reflective practice, so that they are able to draw on multiple factors and perspectives and make sound problem-solving judgements. The book begins with the core concepts, client focus, and legal background before moving on to consider the collaborative processes and the nature of individual judgements. It then considers particular dimensions of social work decision making, such as safeguarding, taking risks, assessment and dynamic decision tools and processes. It then concludes by look at the organisational context of decision management, with a focus on supervision, training and effective communication.

What's behind every healed patient? Critical thinking! And what book best equips you to master the critical thinking skills needed for success on the NCLEX examination and in professional nursing practice? Alfaro's Critical Thinking, Clinical Reasoning, and Clinical Judgment, 6th Edition! With a motivational style and insightful "how-to" approach, this unique textbook draws upon real-life scenarios and evidence-based strategies as it guides you in learning to think critically in clinically meaningful ways. The new edition features a more streamlined, full-color design, and expanded coverage on some of key trends, including: interdisciplinary care teams, competency-based education, the IOM's Leading Health Indicators, legal considerations, the effects of the Affordable Care Act, and much more. If you want to truly succeed in nursing practice today and be thinking-oriented rather than task-oriented, then look no further than this one-of-a-kind textbook. - Simple approach and motivational writing style include vivid examples, memorable anecdotes, and real case scenarios to make content come alive. - Practical strategies to promote critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment are incorporated along with supporting evidence as to why the strategies work. - Focus on application (or "how to") and inclusion of supporting rationales (theory) make difficult concepts easy to learn. - Critical thinking indicators feature evidence-based descriptions from the author of behaviors that promote critical thinking in nursing practice. - Highlighted features and sections — such as Chapter at a Glance, Pre-Chapter Self-Tests, Guiding Principles, Critical Moments, Other Perspectives, Think-Pair-Share, Help Me Out cartoons, real-life clinical scenarios, key points, critical thinking exercises, and more — promote independent learning. - UNIQUE! Brain-based learning principles utilize strategies that challenge the mind and are incorporated throughout the text. - Timely coverage includes topical issues, such as: problem-focused versus outcome-focused thinking, prioritizing, developing a culture of safety, healthy work environments, expanding roles related to diagnosis and management, applying delegation principles, evidence-based practice, improving grades and passing tests the first time, NCLEX preparation, ensuring documentation reflects critical thinking, communication and interpersonal skills, strategies for common workplace challenges, and more. - Inclusion of ethics- and standards-based professional practice reflects today's professional climate which demands increasing accountability. - Incorporation of cultural, spiritual, and lifespan content along with the nurse's role in hospitals, communities, and long-term care settings presents a broad approach to critical thinking. - Discussion of Tanner and Benner's most recent work on what the research says about critical thinking and clinical judgment in nursing keeps readers up to date on the evidence-based side of practice. - Coverage of IOM, QSEN, and other patient safety standards also keeps readers up to date on safe and effective nursing care.

Health Psychology in Nursing Practice gives nurses and healthcare practitioners the essentials of health psychology to assist patients and their relatives in adjusting to diagnoses, coping with treatments and other disease-related life changes, managing symptoms and making healthy choices. Directly aimed at nurses, this textbook helps them improve their practice in a very practical way. Key features: * Concise content specifically aimed at nurses and other healthcare professions and taking both an evidence-based and applied approach * Key learning objectives and chapters summaries for revision * Case examples give even more insight into how theory works in the real world * Reflective activities help think about real life practice and quizzes test your knowledge Elizabeth Barley is a Chartered Psychologist, Practitioner Health Psychologist and Registered General Nurse. She is Professor in Health and Wellbeing at the University of West London and Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, King’s College London.