Need Help by Friday presentation

good luck! you've definitely got a tough sell.

my only idea is ask the faculty at a local nursing school to try and sell it to you. you raise the objections that you believe you are likely to hear. this will help develop answers to objections that can be folded into your presentation (without making it to obvious) before the objections are actually raised. at the very least the exercise demonstrate how unconvincing the need for care plans is often put out to soon to be nurses by professional educators.

in the interest of full disclosure...i'm still not convinced of the merits of either care plans (in their many incarnations) or nursing diagnoses, but i do lots of educational presentations and know that answering objections during a presentation makes a stronger and more credible presentation for most audiences.

you are in a unique situation. reminding our leaders of why we chose to serve our fellow man. leaders are usually excellent nurses who are very organized and detail orientated. they may feel that the plans are no brainers but in actuality it is a method of enforcing nursing process and continuing to educate staff. thinking is never a waste, it promotes new ways of communicating. not a chore but a tool - build on iy. be a good cheerleader!!!!

On Friday at 1pm I am addressing all the members of our nursing leadership team. I have the dubious job of convincing them that care plans done correctly are crucial. We are not JACHO but CMS surveyed. This group of otherwise intelligent forward thinking colleagues come apart when the words care plan are mentioned. We have surveyors who feel that the care plans are essential and that a nurse should be able to pick up a care plan and be able to deliver the care to that patient by the info in it.

The nurse leaders feel the care plans are nothing but rewriting the medical plan and that they don't need to be told how to be nurses i.e. turn q 2h. They think it is insulting. They do not see how care plans and nursing diagnosis helps to validate our profession as a separate vital part of the overall health care of our patients.

Any ideas? I am, by the way the Regulations Coordinator(known elsewhere as survey coordinator).I also am Employee Health nurse/workers comp administrator, infection control and education coordinator. I fill in on the floor occassionally as well.

PLEASE HELP??!!! these girls/guys are a tough crowd!!

Eeyore

Yes you are in a hard situation. And how exactly do you feel about care plans? Once I had to enforce additional, totally useless charting in a huge unit because the medical director insisted on it. He had used this form in a totally different unit with success and though it should then be instituted everywhere. You can imagine the complaints. It is hard to enforce something you think is a bit silly, but possible.

Personally, I think care plans are a bit silly- unless they are the ones that are generated automatically (Hip replacement plans that lesson the charting load because all you have to do is check a box that patient ambulated twice today with walker...)What I might do is simply address them in a basic way. It seems from your post, the only reason anyone is interested in these care plans is because of the CMS surveyors. Yo might explain that CMS is the primary(or one of our big) funders, and the funds we get from them pay our salaries. CMS wants care plans, so even if we do not want care plans, we need to think of the bottom line. Care plans are an annoying bit of paperwork, but at they are something that can be done and will not require too much physical or mental power. I would add this after all the other discussion about why they might be good. Sometimes it is better to put a bottom line in rather than a lot of nice this is why this is good chat.

What do I think of care plans? I think that done well and correctly they are an important communication tool and excellent source of documentation of our looking at the overall picture of our patients and not just finishing a bunch of tasks because it is what the doctor ordered. I think the preprinted ones are fine if people truly individualize them. I also think that if you are in a setting where you have 6-8 med/surg patients a day you will be fortunate to get the "tasks" done. However the patient load at my facility is never more than 5 a piece and always with an LNA to help. I know there is time in this setting to complete thoughtful thorough care plans.

Thank you all for all your ideas. I have taken all your suggestions and we will see what we can achieve, I will let you know how it goes.

EEYORE

did your presentation go well?

:balloons: It actually went very well. I think I have finally softened them up. At least for the most part. One of my colleagues is determined to get her doctorate in nursing so she can set policy instead of "blindly following." They did ask for my help in teaching their staff(there are a lot of us old folks who really did not get the care palns as we know love and them today.) Anyone have any good references or even bullet points regarding well written care plans? Thanks again for all your suggestions and support folks.

Eeeyore