Maslow's Hierarchy of Basic Human Needs... The Basis for Epistemic Clinical Reasoning
Maslow's Hierarchy provides the architecture of large concepts that supports the clinical reasoning you will do after you assess your patient
The Greeks used the word episteme to refer to systematic, inter-related knowledge. What could be more inter-related than a pyramid? Each level of a pyramid is supported by the one below it... all the way to the top. In Maslow's schema, higher order needs (those that make up personality and character) can only be addressed when more foundational needs are successfully met. If you are trying to reason clinically about an adult patient in an acute care setting, you are likely focused upon Maslow's "first floor", physiologic needs. And this makes perfect sense! Dead patients don't worry about their situational safety, whether they're loved or not, their self-esteem and certainly not their self-actualization. The game is over. Consequently, the nurse on a medical surgical unit is usually trying to remedy physiologic problems so that the patient can survive long enough to have a personality, let alone satisfy its needs.
Please scroll through the outline below and notice that almost all the conditions in your Med-Surg text can be tucked into the needs as they are outlined.
Please scroll through the outline below and notice that almost all the conditions in your Med-Surg text can be tucked into the needs as they are outlined.
Make sure you understand this pyramid! As you roam this website, you'll be referred back to Maslow's Hierarchy quite often.