five-step nursing process, a nursing process comprising five broad categories of nursing behaviors: assessing, analyzing, planning, implementing, and evaluating. The nurse gathers information about the patient, identifies his or her specific needs, develops a plan of care with the patient to answer these needs, implements the plan of care, and evaluates the effects of the implementation. The nurse involves the patient, the patient’s family, and significant others in each step of the process to the greatest extent possible and compensates for and acknowledges the factors that may influence the provision of care by the nurse and staff. Implicit in the nursing process is the therapeutic and personal relationship of the nurse, the patient, the patient’s family, and significant others. See also nursing process.
