What EXACTLY is a care plan?

Nursing Students General Students

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There are a lot of posts on this site about care plans; however, while I can somewhat guess what they are, I was wondering if someone could explain them to me. What are they? When in Nursing School do you do them? Why are they so difficult? I have people say on this site that "if you spend 10 hours on a care plan, that's not enough" why do they take so long? What is the length of one of them?

I am sure my answers will be addressed when I start school later this month, I just like to know what's coming up!

Thanks

Specializes in ED.

What book did you buy if you don't mind me asking? I've been trying to find one..just don't know where to start.

It has patho animations on the companion site, a care planner online that lets you customize, etc (all free btw).

It's the one we were required to purchase. If it wasn't for that, I'd be lost trying to pick one.

(sorry for the numerous posts, I'm on my phone and hit enter too soon!)

Hahaah, numerous posts are fine by me! Thank you, I'm going to order it now! We aren't required to order a care plan book, but I'm trying to be prepared!

In my few years of nursing, here are the various perspectives I have had on care plans.

1. KILL IT WITH FIRE. DIE DIE DIE.

2. In the hands of an anal battleaxe-type of professor, it is indeed an academic torture device. Some teachers are needlessly obsessed with NANDA guidelines, wording and format to the point where they become more important than the content and the original purpose i.e. to bring some logic and standards to patient care.

3. In the hands of a great teacher, it is a fantastic tool for teaching/walking through the process of prioritization and critical thinking. Care plans essentially ask what is going on with the patient, what are the issues we need to address, what can we do about it and how do we know we are successful? A full care plan with multiple diagnoses require you to prioritize. Which issue will seriously harm the patient first, and which can we address later? Awesome, right? With the right teacher, it is.

4. In the workplace and in "real life" documentation, care plans are essentially useless. They are like the scratchy embroidered hand towels at your eccentric aunt's bathroom. Just for decoration.

In regards to what the best care plan book to use, use the one that your teachers like. They are the ones who will be grading your work, so it behooves you to know which resources they use to judge what a good care plan is. Buy 'em cheap. I doubt you will be using them beyond nursing school.

Careplans are a little different in school than in the workplace. The ones you do in school are more detailed, because you need to learn what you are doing before you start filling out the "short form" versions. They are usually meant as more of a teaching method so you learn how to use labs, medications and medical diagnoses to apply nursing diagnoses. So, of course they take longer to fill out.

You will learn in school that there are doctor's diagnoses (such as sepsis, cancer, anemia, etc...), and nursing diagnoses. The careplan is filled out by the nurse who is admitting the patient, and every nurse who assumes care afterwords reviews, and if necessary, revises the care plan. This is meant to insure consistant care is given by all nurses.

For example, if I admit an elderly patient who has orthostatic hypotension (their blood pressure drops with they stand up), they would be in danger of falling. A nursing diagnosis might be "risk of injury due to falls related to hypotension". So, then I would apply the necessary interventions to try to prevent the injury. Such as "bed alarm in place", "call button within reach", etc... This would all be called out in the care plan. So when you took over care of the patient you would review the careplan, and initial it. This stays in the patient's chart.

There is an organization called NANDA North American Nursing Diagnosis Association. They put out a list of standard nursing diagnoses. This is the standard my school used and I would imagine a lot of other schools use as well.

Good luck in school, I hope this helps.

Thank you for this mikeicurn!! This really helped me out because I'm doing my first care plan now and I constantly got mixed up due to me trying to treat the doctor's diagnosis versus actually coming up with nursing diagnoses to help the patient feel better, leaving treating the actually medical diagnosis to the doctors. Thanks again!!!

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Thank you for this mikeicurn!! This really helped me out because I'm doing my first care plan now and I constantly got mixed up due to me trying to treat the doctor's diagnosis versus actually coming up with nursing diagnoses to help the patient feel better, leaving treating the actually medical diagnosis to the doctors. Thanks again!!!

The care plan is the document to help everyone "know" how to care for the patient the same was and "know" what to look out for.......keeping everyone on the same page.

It a "recipe" tailored for that patient. Check these threads out....I have given a ton of information.

https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/help-nursing-diagnoses-791714.html

https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/help-nursing-dx-791461.html

https://allnurses.com/nursing-student-assistance/another-care-plan-791731.html

A site search for Care PLans

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