The nursing process is a process by which nurses deliver care to patients, supported by nursing models or philosophies. The nursing process was originally an adapted form of problem-solving and is classified as a deductive theory.
Nursing process is a patient centered, goal oriented method of caring that provides a framework to nursing care. It involves five major steps of assessment, nursing diagnosis, planning, implementation/intervention and evaluating. Key to nursing process is critical thinking / clinical judgment, which requires assessment skill, technical competence, interpersonal skill and the ability to syntehesize data, cluster it into similar patterns in order to develop a nursing diagnosis, and then the ability to work together with patient/family/community to establish appropriate outcomes and interventions.
A - Assess (what is the situation?) D - Diagnose (what is the problem?) P - Plan (how to improve/stabilize the problem) I - Implement (putting plan into action) E - Evaluate (did the plan work?) All together equaling ADPIE.