care plans?

Altra, BSN, RN · Aug 13, 2004

I'd like to contribute my thoughts on this ...

There is a considerable amount of gnashing of teeth over care plans. They are long and tedious. But (donning flameproof suit :mad: ) I don't think they're difficult.

I think most schools' book lists include a book of nursing diagnoses -- the one I have is Nurses' Pocket Guide: Diagnoses, Interventions & Rationales (Doenges, Moorhouse et al, 8th ed.). It's all in there. If one of the nursing diagnoses for your pt. is, say, Risk for Injury ... It's all there - risk factors, desired outcomes, and 23 nursing interventions grouped by rationale. I've often felt almost "guilty" for putting together a care plan by simply pulling the most appropriate interventions out of the book. But that's the idea -- you don't need to reinvent the wheel for every care plan for every pt. - instead you use interventions for which there is a documented, evidence-based (i.e., backed up by research) rationale.

The book also includes an alphabetical listing of medical diagnoses (diseases and conditions) with 2-5 related nursing diagnoses for each.

One clinical day I ended up having lunch with a nursing student from another school who also has clinicals at the same hospital. In talking with her, I found that she was simply given a list of NANDA-approved nursing diagnoses with a bare minimum explanation of each. I told her about "The Book", and she's a much happier camper now! :nurse:

I hope this helps some of you. Best of luck! :)

JudithL_in_NH · Aug 13, 2004

Mitchsmom,

I've added a couple to the site (one on pain, one on altered thought processes).

Our faculty encourages us to use Nursing Diagnosis books and not reinvent the wheel, as MLOS said. We mostly use the ones by Carpenito.

Some of our faculty wants only the referenced interventions and rationales found in the Dx books, other also want us to add "common sense" interventions that do not need to be referenced. Sort of have to go by whatever the current semester's clinical prof's expectations are. Most expect them to be L-O-N-G :chuckle

Best of luck to all!

SC RN, RN · Aug 13, 2004

I emailed a care plan to you (didn't realize I could post it myself) ... let me know if you want to go ahead and post it or if you want me to do it. Our care plans are very detailed ... I'll be interested to see what everyone else does!

Thanks!

mitchsmom · Aug 13, 2004

Thanks guys! :)

LauraLou · Aug 13, 2004

I just posted a care plan for deficient fluid volume. We have a specific format that has to be used. Hopefully, it will make sense to everyone. After each nursing intervention, we have to put an I, D or C. They stand for Independent, Dependant or Collaborative action.

I really, really hate care plans!!!

purplemania, BSN, RN · Aug 13, 2004

don't have a plan to share, but can add some websites I have referred my students to:

http://www.rncentral.com

http://www.careplans.com

http://www.nursing.about.com/health/msubplans.htm

Have not looked at these in several months, so not sure if the info is current, but hope you can find what you need. The objective with the plans is to focus your attention on what is the REAL problem and how to set priorities. This is what NCLEX is all about. Cheating on careplans cheats yourself, so try to learn something from each one.