Looking for a Care Plan constructor CD (or something like it)

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2009

A "constructor" is only going to format for printing what you type into it. The reason the ones you are looking at are outdated is because the nursing diagnosis list changes a bit each year. The ones that are free on the Internet only contain the most commonly use nursing diagnoses (approximately 80 of the current 188+). The NANDA information and the NOC outcomes and NIC interventions are all proprietary properties that the maker of a computer program must purchase. Facilities who have this information in their care plan generators have paid huge amounts of money for this information as well as the programming. You can pay to access care plans on http://www.careplans.com/. However, I have been writing care plans for over 30 years. I can tell you that care planning begins with assessment and is very much like police detectives who search for clues to prove their cases. If you do not have evidence to prove that nursing problems (nursing diagnoses) exist, no care plan program or constructor is going to be of any use to you. A tool is only of use if you understand how to use it and if you are experienced in its use you get better results with it.

In answering care plan questions on allnurses (and I have answered hundreds of questions) I primarily find that students fail to assess thoroughly. It is something that one develops over time and with experience. A second problem is failing to realize that nursing diagnoses are very different from medical diagnoses and taking the time to learn what the different nursing diagnoses are. A computer program isn't going to teach you these things.