educational value of care plans

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Nov 26, 2015

Are you a first semester student? There is tons of value.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Nov 26, 2015

Are you a first semester student? There is tons of value.

OP is a current CNA who will be graduating from an LPN program in a few short months.

FuturenurseL · Nov 26, 2015

As a first year student I hated them by 2nd year I was able to do them fast. Now they really do help you in thinking about your patient care and interventions to anticipate for your patient. It will all come together.

NurseEmmy · Nov 26, 2015

Wow.. You may not see the point to them now, but hopefully as you further your education you can recognize just how important they are. Believe me, I KNOW just how time consuming and frustrating they can be. That will get easier. They are a great tool for learning dx, medications, comorbidities, and out-side of the box interventions. Try to find something good in them. It helps.

OnlinePersona, LPN · Nov 26, 2015

Are you a first semester student? There is tons of value.

I'm graduating in a few months.

As I asked, what's the value?

ParkerBC,MSN,RN, PhD, RN · Nov 26, 2015

We do care plans everyday on the floor. They are not in the sense of writing out papers. Rather, it's a metal list of what we will be doing during our 12 hour shift. For example, you have an 73 year old with bilateral knee replacement. What are your top three priorities (goals)? What will be the interventions you will implement in order to meet your goals? Towards the end of your shift, did you meet your goals? During the middle of the shift was a goal met and you decided to add a new goal with interventions. Trust me, we do not assign care plans for "busy work" I have other things I can be doing besides grading care plans.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Nov 26, 2015

I think care plans helped me a lot with learning about different types of medications and pathophysiology of disease.

akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P · Nov 26, 2015

The main thing you're not getting is that the written care plan is your "recipe" for taking care of patients. Like a chef, you must first learn to follow some basic recipes, memorize them through repetition, and as you start doing more complex dishes, you see that portions of your learned recipes just plug in. Same with patient care. You learn the basics and internalize them. Then as you start caring for more complex patients, you start incorporating parts from several care plans to make customized plans for each patient. Knowing those basics makes it easier to keep stuff straight because you don't have to think about each small step, it's just another item.

For me, it's like the chest pain protocol. 12 lead, X-ray, IV,labs, ntg q5 min, morphine q5 min... That's a lot to think about. (Yes, I left some stuff out for some brevity.) Or I can just think about "chest pain protocol" and "difficulty breathing protocol" and "altered mental status protocol" and just know what needs to be done for each. That's a lot to keep track of if you haven't learned the basic care plan stuff.

SarahJ08 · Nov 26, 2015

I find that nursing care plans mean nothing outside of nursing school. You literally have to have doctor's order for everything.

dah doh, BSN, RN · Nov 26, 2015

When I was a nursing student, I didn't really see the point to nursing care plans either. It was a long process of patho, meds, nursing diagnosis, interventions, and interviewing the patient and family. It was endless and a lot of typing on a weekly basis! And my grade depended on it!

Well I've been a nurse a while now so my perspective of the nursing care plan has changed a bit. As I listen to shift report my brain goes through the patient's patho. As I look at my med list, I think "oh I know that's for..." because I've looked it up before. As I plan my day, I've prioritized my interventions. As I assess my patients, I talk to them (aka the dreaded interview) and the family to find out their needs and update them on the plan of care. As for those nursing diagnosis, you still initiate a nursing care plan and evaluate it every shift. The government agencies that reimburse your employer for health care require it so it really doesn't go away. At least it's not as long as it was in school. However, I bet your computerized charting takes just as long as typing out those care plans. I suppose if you decide to work in a non-patient care area when you graduate, you might get away with no care plans anymore.

CelticGoddess, BSN, RN · Nov 26, 2015

I find that nursing care plans mean nothing outside of nursing school. You literally have to have doctor's order for everything.

No you don't. Do you need a doctors order to educate a patient? Do you need to have a doctors order to assess your patient and decide if there is something else going on? Do you need a doctor to call a rapid when your patient is tanking.

We still use POC (point of care) where I work. Though not exactly a care plan, it is still a plan of care. I will go through them every night to determine if my patients have resolved any issues or if we need to change them.

Nurses can do a lot without a doctors order. Granted, I can't give meds, order an x-ray or labs. But I can do a lot without an MD order. (And I can initiate some therapies before I get an MD order, such as starting a patient on O2