Careplans

[tiffdeandre]

In the RN program, do you have to write a lot of care plans? If so, is that hard to do?

[PurifyMe]

Let me just preface this post by saying...CAREPLANS ARE EVIL:devil:.......No, really, I am in the second quarter of a six quarter ADN program and I have written about 6 careplanes so far. More of which have been in the last 3 weeks becasue we are now doing lost of patient care/interventions. Thery are not hard per say, but time consuming. Everything you need to write a care plan is in the Ackley Nursing Diagnosis Handbook, but it simply takes time to find the correct intervention for the correct nursing diagnosis that has the rational you are trying to explain.

I'm sure the further I go into this, the more care plans I will write. Infact, my professor promised us of that.

Pure.....

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

in an rn program you are going to be taught to be a problem solver. that is what an rn is paid to do on the job. a care plan is the written documentation of the problem solving process. a care plan is required to be in every hospital patient's chart by federal medicare law of every hospital that accepts medicare funds. that's pretty much 99% of the hospitals in the u.s., so you will have to learn how to do care plans because you will be writing them as long as you work as a hospital or nursing home nurse.

did you think learning to ride a two-wheeler bike or drive a car was hard to do at first? most things that are new to us are hard to do. however, skills become easier as you practice, practice, practice. care planning is actually a problem solving method. in actuality, you and i have been using the very same problem solving process in our personal lives for years. let me give you an example:

you are driving along and suddenly you hear a bang, you start having trouble controlling your car's direction and it's hard to keep your hands on the steering wheel. you pull over to the side of the road. "what's wrong?" you're thinking. you look over the dashboard and none of the warning lights are blinking. you decide to get out of the car and take a look at the outside of the vehicle. you start walking around it. then, you see it. a huge nail is sticking out of one of the rear tires and the tire is noticeably deflated. what you have just done is step #1 of the nursing process--performed an assessment. you determine that you have a flat tire. you have just done step #2 of the nursing process--made a diagnosis. the little squirrel starts running like crazy in the wheel up in your brain. "what do i do?" you are thinking. you could call aaa. no, you can save the money and do it yourself. you can replace the tire by changing out the flat one with the spare in the trunk. good thing you took that class in how to do simple maintenance and repairs on a car! you have just done step #3 of the nursing process--planning (developed a goal and intervention). you get the jack and spare tire out of the trunk, roll up your sleeves and get to work. you have just done step #4 of the nursing process--implementation of the plan. after the new tire is installed you put the flat one in the trunk along with the jack, dust yourself off, take a long drink of that bottle of water you had with you and prepare to drive off. you begin slowly to test the feel as you drive. good. everything seems fine. the spare tire seems to be ok and off you go and on your way. you have just done step #5 of the nursing process--evaluation (determined if your goal was met).

now, what nursing has done is taken that process, broken it down into five steps, given each of them a name, and added some directions as to what to do in each of the steps. it is nothing more than that. what trips some students up and makes them frustrated is that they don't follow these steps in sequence to begin with, so they start out poorly organized. then, they fail to look up information about the patient's medical and nursing conditions which doesn't help them either. they don't do what they are supposed to do for each of the steps of the process. when they become frustrated, they blame it on the care plan. the fact is that one way or another, sooner or later, you are going to learn to problem solve because that is what the job of rn entails. you can start out learning it in school or do it on the job. your choice. it is more painful to learn it on the job because you are under much more pressure to perform. you can choose to be the best that you can be or just a mediocre nurse who barely makes it through each shift hoping that nothing serious that she can't handle comes up. the first care plans you do will be slow going and perhaps a little painful, but so is riding that two-wheeler bike without training wheels for the first time. care planning is an intellectual skill. like any skill you perfect it through practice. please don't start off with a negative attitude about them because it will only make learning how to do them much harder for you.

i've been writing care plans on the job for years. my first ones probably weren't as good as ones i write now. but, i never stopped trying to improve on them. i happen to think that they are not hard to do, just tedious because i have to pick up a pen and write and i am a lot older and arthritis is taking it's toll on me.

[4x4country]

Great job Daytonite explaining it in simple terms. I personally like carplans, (I am not crazy) to me they are not (too) hard. Yes they are time consuming and make u think. Yes, you have a really hard time sometimes for somepatients. They make you think.

Just remember R/T related to or Risk for and AEB as evidence by.

[semiller36545]

in an rn program you are going to be taught to be a problem solver. that is what an rn is paid to do on the job. a care plan is the written documentation of the problem solving process. a care plan is required to be in every hospital patient's chart by federal medicare law of every hospital that accepts medicare funds. that's pretty much 99% of the hospitals in the u.s., so you will have to learn how to do care plans because you will be writing them as long as you work as a hospital or nursing home nurse.

did you think learning to ride a two-wheeler bike or drive a car was hard to do at first? most things that are new to us are hard to do. however, skills become easier as you practice, practice, practice. care planning is actually a problem solving method. in actuality, you and i have been using the very same problem solving process in our personal lives for years. let me give you an example:

you are driving along and suddenly you hear a bang, you start having trouble controlling your car's direction and it's hard to keep your hands on the steering wheel. you pull over to the side of the road. "what's wrong?" you're thinking. you look over the dashboard and none of the warning lights are blinking. you decide to get out of the car and take a look at the outside of the vehicle. you start walking around it. then, you see it. a huge nail is sticking out of one of the rear tires and the tire is noticeably deflated. what you have just done is step #1 of the nursing process--performed an assessment. you determine that you have a flat tire. you have just done step #2 of the nursing process--made a diagnosis. the little squirrel starts running like crazy in the wheel up in your brain. "what do i do?" you are thinking. you could call aaa. no, you can save the money and do it yourself. you can replace the tire by changing out the flat one with the spare in the trunk. good thing you took that class in how to do simple maintenance and repairs on a car! you have just done step #3 of the nursing process--planning (developed a goal and intervention). you get the jack and spare tire out of the trunk, roll up your sleeves and get to work. you have just done step #4 of the nursing process--implementation of the plan. after the new tire is installed you put the flat one in the trunk along with the jack, dust yourself off, take a long drink of that bottle of water you had with you and prepare to drive off. you begin slowly to test the feel as you drive. good. everything seems fine. the spare tire seems to be ok and off you go and on your way. you have just done step #5 of the nursing process--evaluation (determined if your goal was met).

now, what nursing has done is taken that process, broken it down into five steps, given each of them a name, and added some directions as to what to do in each of the steps. it is nothing more than that. what trips some students up and makes them frustrated is that they don't follow these steps in sequence to begin with, so they start out poorly organized. then, they fail to look up information about the patient's medical and nursing conditions which doesn't help them either. they don't do what they are supposed to do for each of the steps of the process. when they become frustrated, they blame it on the care plan. the fact is that one way or another, sooner or later, you are going to learn to problem solve because that is what the job of rn entails. you can start out learning it in school or do it on the job. your choice. it is more painful to learn it on the job because you are under much more pressure to perform. you can choose to be the best that you can be or just a mediocre nurse who barely makes it through each shift hoping that nothing serious that she can't handle comes up. the first care plans you do will be slow going and perhaps a little painful, but so is riding that two-wheeler bike without training wheels for the first time. care planning is an intellectual skill. like any skill you perfect it through practice. please don't start off with a negative attitude about them because it will only make learning how to do them much harder for you.

i've been writing care plans on the job for years. my first ones probably weren't as good as ones i write now. but, i never stopped trying to improve on them. i happen to think that they are not hard to do, just tedious because i have to pick up a pen and write and i am a lot older and arthritis is taking it's toll on me.

great explanation ! have you ever thought about teaching ?

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

I am teaching all the time on the student forums--particularly how to write care plans!

[semiller36545]

I am teaching all the time on the student forums--particularly how to write care plans!

I can imagine. You really are good. Your pts must get great benefits from that level of skill and talent, as well.