careplan books

gymrat33, LPN · Oct 20, 2006

My best friends clinical instructor showed them one and told them where to get it. I think it was half.com. Nursing Diagnosis by Ackley & Ladwig. It's orange and maybe yellow in the middle. I'm going to look for it b/c my care plan book is horrible. Good luck!

AuntieRN · Oct 20, 2006

My best friends clinical instructor showed them one and told them where to get it. I think it was half.com. Nursing Diagnosis by Ackley & Ladwig. It's orange and maybe yellow in the middle. I'm going to look for it b/c my care plan book is horrible. Good luck!

This is the same book I was going to reccomend only mine is purple and blue I think. I bought it at barnes and nobles. It's a thick one and kinda heavy to carry with you but...it works. It walks you through interventions and everything. It got me through school. Good luck to you both.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2006

The Ackley and Ladwig book that people are mentioning is a nursing diagnosis book.

If you want to get an idea of how any care plan book is structured go to a site such as Barnes and Noble where you can sometimes get a look at the Table of Contents for these books. You will find that care plan books are organized in one of two ways: by nursing diagnosis, or by medical diagnosis. I think what you are looking for is one by medical diagnosis. The ones by nursing diagnosis work much better for nursing students. I found, however, when I was in clinical practice that the books structured by medical diagnosis worked much better for me.

For care plans by medical diagnosis look at the ones by

Lynda Juall Carpenito-Moyet: Nursing Diagnosis, Application to Clinical Practice, Vol. II, 2005 printing. Runs about $49.95. Another is Nursing Care Plans: Guidelines for Individualizing Client Care Across the Life Span by Marilynn E. Doenges, Mary Frances Moorhouse and Alice C. Muir. Both of these books have care plans by medical diagnoses. I used Carpenito's book for years. Carpenito uses NANDA nursing diagnoses following NANDA guidelines to the letter. She has been a member of NANDA for years. Doenges' is a bit more free-handed with her care plans and the wording of some of the nursing diagnoses she uses although she also follows NANDA rules.

WDWpixieRN, RN · Oct 21, 2006

Make sure you check to see if your school requires a certain book...we're first semester and starting to do care plans and an instructor happened to mention that it's a required book for second semester...so guess who's over in the bookstore buying them now?

I purchased an different one online (that I read about in a sticky in the General Nursing Forum) that I'm going to try before I purchase the school's book (which I believe is Ackley) only because I'm a little afraid they'll change the required book before next semester and I don't want to have put out the $$ for 3 of these (unless I find I have to)....although they're usually fairly lax on some books if you've got a similar or older version of something, thank goodness!

Good luck!

RN007 · Oct 22, 2006

I love my Ackley/Ladwig 'Nursing Diagnosis Handbook'. I also have the Mosby 'Nursing Care Plans', but it's not as comprehensive as the Ackley.