Planning care

A considerable amount of data is collected through the process of history taking and examination; however, the key outcome needs to be an informed clinical decision regarding the patient’s need for nursing, medical support and a plan for intervention. Clinical judgements are made not only on information gathering, both clinical and about the person and their social context, but also account needs to be taken of other factors, such as the patient’s own beliefs and priorities and the resources available to intervene effectively. Helping patients make the most of their treatment provides details of how to help patients to participate in decision regarding their treatment regimen and how to use this optimally. Here brief reference is made to the knowledge that informs clinical judgements and a brief outline of the key theories that describe and explain how clinical decisions are made. These are intended to raise awareness of the complexity of the decision-making process and what elements need to be considered when trying to formulate effective clinical judgements. Finally, the section briefly highlights issues of prioritisation in dermatology care and which ‘red flag’ skin conditions require a rapid response to minimise patient risk.