care plans

[cawkazn]

when i was in school and we had to make care plans, i was told we could only get our diagnoses and treatments etc. out of the book. Now when you are working in the field are you able to come up with your own or do you still have to get them out of the book?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I worked as an LVN for more than four years, from February 2006 until June 2010. I never once had to deal with care-planning on the job.

The management at the facilities where I had worked as an LVN always conducted care plan meetings where they got the care plans started and/or added to existing care plans.

[cawkazn]

i got a job offer and was told i will be making care plans. i dont have much experience with them in school because i was under the impression RN's usually do them. do you know the answer to my question regarding whether i can make my own or do i still have to pull all the treatments etc. from the book?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

i got a job offer and was told i will be making care plans. i dont have much experience with them in school because i was under the impression RN's usually do them. do you know the answer to my question regarding whether i can make my own or do i still have to pull all the treatments etc. from the book?

I don't know the answer due to the lack of clarity within your question, so I have moved your thread over to the General Nursing Discussion forum in order for it to accrue more responses from people who actually do care planning on a day-to-day basis. You are probably not going to get answers over in the LPN/LVN Corner forum.

Now that I am an RN, I do care-planning with every newly admitted patient. However, this simply involves checking off stuff on a pre-printed care plan packet.

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

As an RN you will initiate the care plan. If you are an LPN you would follow through with the interventions and document the responses of the patient. But please document according to your facility protocol, I'm just throwing out what I have been taught in the past.

At my facility it isn't too difficult to start a care plan. There are categories (or you can make your own if not listed) to choose from like safety, pain management, coping/support, skin issues etc. It really isn't as difficult in the real world as nursing school makes it out to be in regards to care plans.

ETA: with experience you'll *know* appropriate interventions/treatments for your patients but you can always consult a book until you feel proficient. Good luck!

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

In Texas the RN is responsible for creating a care plan. We have a form for the general ones, but some nurses add their own nursing diagnoses.

[Orange Tree]

Our care plans are computerized. They involve selecting items from lists of familiar nursing diagnoses and interventions. We also have an "other" option that can be customized. RNs make the original care plans and RNs and LVNs update them each shift. They're not considered very important by anyone- they're just one more "thing" that we have to do.

[anonymous1919, LPN]

I am a LPN and the only care plans I do are when someone falls has a skin tear/bruise and they are already written out. I just have to write the patients name, and the dates in which the issue should resolve which is also predetermined (1 week for improvement, 2 weeks to resolve), and then write whatever order the Dr. may have given for tx.

[lilypad2424]

Care plans are total BS! I want to know who thought they would be a good idea......our job is a "Care Plan" GRRRRRRRR.

Check, check, check, check

[Up2nogood RN, RN]

Care plans are total BS! I want to know who thought they would be a good idea......our job is a "Care Plan" GRRRRRRRR.

Check, check, check, check

Where I work we actually use the nursing care plan to help guide the care and interventions/tx. If you don't have any nursing diagnoses than why are you even seeing the patient?

A lot of our bedside report is based on the patient care plan and if you think about it you probably use it more than you realize.

[MunoRN, RN]

There is a wide variety of things out there that get the "care plan" label placed on them and most are not what we remember from nursing school. Care plans that are based on NANDA nursing diagnoses (the kind where you have to stick to the pre-approved nursing diagnoses) are not something you'll find in up to date hospitals or LTC's, those tend to be found only in nursing schools.

Real world care plans are isolated to only nursing functions are often used without nursing staff even realizing they are using care plans: Assessing a patient is part of building a care plan, providing medications is part of a care plan, teaching is part of a care plan, etc.