Care plans- student nursing

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Hi All,

How have you been doing with Care Plans? Want to share any comments or opinions?

Thanks,

Marie:)

we all hate care plans, they are basically outdated due to the quick turnover of patients in the hospitals now, you only have time to carry out Dr. orders. But they are still the backbone of nursing care, and i hate it when the older nurses say, "in my day,", so i would like to master the art of care plans. so far, so good.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Howdy yall

from deep in the heat of texas

Nowadays with computerized charting you make care plans by just clicking on the applicable items. When they first came out we had to make them up using our mind and write them out long hand. The catch nowadays is that if you have an item in the care plan, it has to be addressed daily in the notes even on a computer system. But there again computerized charting makes it so much easier.

doo wah ditty

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I type mine too. Our instructor gave us forms so I just put them in "excel" and tomorrow when I go in to get all of the info on Saturdays client I will type in what I need and print it out. Then Saturday at 6am I will go in and write what changed.

My hand writing is terrible unless I really concentrate and then it takes too long :rolleyes:

And Connie, I just cut and pasted your words of wisdom to tape to my clipboard - Thanks :kiss

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Glad to help. Dispite the posts here, I do find that my experience doing care plans has helped me in my nursing practice. I no longer write a care plan for my patients but I do find myself THINKING in terms of the nursing care plan, i.e. when I first see a patient I start trying to determin what is the priority for nursing care, what makes me think this, what do I have to do to correct/prevent this problem, and how will I know if I did a good job. Just last night I had a patient with end stage COPD who had just been place on hospice. By assessment, my priority was to provide comfort in the dying process. Now I have my priority I can plan what I need to do next, and I can self evaluate if I met my own priority for care. My whole night was determined by my plan of care for this patient. I got my assessments and meds done early, got other nurses to keep an eye on my patients and spent the remaining hours of my shift and well into the next shift just sitting with this man so that there was someone with him when he died. How do I know I met my goals? My patient died with me holding his hand and just gently slipped over to the other side. This is why we work on care plans in school. Care plans train the mind to think in a certain way and this way of thinking benefits us as nurses and it benefits our patients. Hnag in there with the care plans, you'll see the benefit to you.

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Specializes in LTC, ER, ICU,.
originally posted by rnconnief

glad to help. dispite the posts here, i do find that my experience doing care plans has helped me in my nursing practice. i no longer write a care plan for my patients but i do find myself thinking in terms of the nursing care plan, i.e. when i first see a patient i start trying to determin what is the priority for nursing care, what makes me think this, what do i have to do to correct/prevent this problem, and how will i know if i did a good job. just last night i had a patient with end stage copd who had just been place on hospice. by assessment, my priority was to provide comfort in the dying process. now i have my priority i can plan what i need to do next, and i can self evaluate if i met my own priority for care. my whole night was determined by my plan of care for this patient. i got my assessments and meds done early, got other nurses to keep an eye on my patients and spent the remaining hours of my shift and well into the next shift just sitting with this man so that there was someone with him when he died. how do i know i met my goals? my patient died with me holding his hand and just gently slipped over to the other side. this is why we work on care plans in school. care plans train the mind to think in a certain way and this way of thinking benefits us as nurses and it benefits our patients. hnag in there with the care plans, you'll see the benefit to you.

how compassionate and professional, connie. you get a big ((((((connie))))) from me. keep being the wonderful person you are. i too re-read your post about care plans and thought, i need to save this. i start clinical on the 22nd of this month and it will come in handy to have another approach to thinking, thanks.
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Good Luck with your clinicals. And thanks for the hug. It was a hard death, so I really needed the hugs. Thanks again.

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Gee me and care plans just do not get along!!!!!!!

We had to do at least 5 care plans for one patient so that's what they got from me the least 5, and pretty much just got a pass on the ........ things but there's still more to come in the next semester lucky me.

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Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

I have COPD too, and went into respiratory arrest twice this year, and had to be intubated. The first time I had pneumonia, and the second time, just three months later, I had pneumonia with septicemia. I sure would like for you to be around when it's time for me to die.

I refuse to go to a nursing home, and am receiving daily care at home.

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Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

Connie,

my message is for you. You sound like a very caring person, and are a true credit to what nursing is all about.

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Call me Weird !!

I actually LIKE doing Care Plans !!!

What a great learning tool.. Connie I know what you mean about "always thinking in terms of Care Plans " :nurse:

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Originally posted by Julielpn

I used a book that I bought. It was very thorough and I got an "Excellent" on my first care plan that I used that book! :)

Please, please, share...........I don't start actual nursing classes until Sept. 2003........Just working on prereqs now.............but I would LOVE to be a lil ahead with book purchases, and this one sounds like it's more than worth it.

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Originally posted by DebsZoo

Please, please, share...........I don't start actual nursing classes until Sept. 2003........Just working on prereqs now.............but I would LOVE to be a lil ahead with book purchases, and this one sounds like it's more than worth it.

There are several care plan books out there... but you might want to wait to buy one until you start classes. If NANDA comes up with new dx you would want the most up-to-date version.

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