the protocols act as a nurse's navigation tool she must first determine the coordinates are patient symptoms and then plugged those symptoms into her initial assessment to come up with the most accurate protocol to get her patient to the right destination or level of care choosing the wrong protocol may lay this care and potentially place her patient at risk for complications while protocols are helpful to keep the nurse focused and on track they are just one of many tools she uses protocol should never be a replacement for nursing judgment or critical thinking instead they should enhance the nurses skills and help her fine tune her decision-making most importantly protocols provide a standardized approach to each call and they act as a reminder of details that could be overlooked please visit our Learning Center for more articles and videos and feel free to leave comments and share this video with your colleagues