Plagiarism? In Care Plans?

[pht15]

So, this post has to do with ensuring that I do not plagiarize care plans. Care plans are something altogether different from what I'm used to writing. I have never knowingly plagiarized before and am unsure of how to avoid plagiarism with regard to writing care plans.

We are supposed to use the NANDA diagnosis as is written by NANDA (not plagiarism, as I understand it), and then in our care plan books we are shown different interventions for the particular nursing diagnosis. Is it considered plagiarism to use the interventions shown in the book for the particular diagnosis if the wording is altered and the source is cited?

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If I believe I may have unintentionally plagiarized, what is the best course of action? Obviously to come clean immediately, right?

[caliotter3]

There are only so many ways to say the material you are presenting in care plans, so I can't see how the concept of plagiarism can be applied, except for this: Patient Q is your patient for Tuesday and you write a care plan. Your student peer, Janey, in your clinical group is assigned Patient Q the following Tuesday. She copies your care plan for Patient Q word for word. I see that as plagiarism.

[kalycat, BSN, RN]

I was always careful to cite my sources, including those I used for lab interpretations or background information from my textbooks. There is a certain amount of standard wording with regard to dx, interventions and things, but I would always still cite, just to be safe or include a brief bibliography even if I didn't use parenthetical citation. I used the NANDA book also, but if I used the nursing diagnosis handbook that listed specific interventions and was more of a "cookbook" style, I cited it. The best thing to do is ask your Prof directly for citation expectations for care plans so that you know your bases are covered. My program's standard was that anything that didn't come fresh baked from your own brain should be cited....but there are certainly different interpretations out there with regard to care plan info. Good luck.

[Libby1987]

I sure wish they would teach you how to care plan differently.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

Cite your sources and quote what you copy directly. It's better to paraphrase too.

At some point care plans might come directly from your own brain. Then you don't need yo cite a source because it's you. You might have to tell your instructor that, however.

[pht15]

That would definitely help. "Here's a care plan guide book. Now use a NANDA-approved nursing diagnosis and come up with interventions that have proven scientific rationale without plagiarizing."