Questions about Nursing Care plans?

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2013

What have you learned in the reading you've been assigned on these topics?

We don't do your homework for you. We are more than happy to hear what you know so we can help you fill in gaps, clarify misconceptions, and such. We are here because we love what we do and in particular love helping students understand why. But this is where you learn that hitting "send" and expecting someone else to write your assignment for you is not the same as doing your own work.

So... what do you think they mean?

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Oct 14, 2013

If your textbook does not address these terms, then go to the school library and look at another textbook. These will be the basic concepts for creating a nursing diagnosis and then a plan of care.

mcclot1993 · Oct 14, 2013

I am not in school I bought a nursing care plan book to help me understand on how to form a nursing diagnosis and plan of care.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2013

That book should have that information in it. Every care planning textbook and the authoritative resource, NANDA-I 2012-2014, that I have ever seen all do.

Do not look at your book as solely a place to lift lines of text to paste into your plans of care; look at it as a book to teach you about the answers to your question. So...read it, see what you learn, tell us what you think, and then ask us again.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Oct 14, 2013

This is a complicated process....you should leave this until you get into school.

Common related factors-who would have this type of nursing diagnosis or problem

Defining Characteristics-what are the key factors

Common Risk Factors- what would be symptoms common denominators that would include your patient in this process

Common Expected Outcome- what will the patient gain.....how will things improve...proof that you helped.

NOC outcomes and NIC Interventions- what should you expect....how do you get there what wo9uld you do for them

Ongoing assessment actions/ interventions and rationales-how do you know tht you continue to help or that they understand.

Therapeutic Intervention- what you actually do...like give a medicine.

sbaker935 · Oct 14, 2013

Yeah I agree. It's too much of a complicated process to understand and critically think on how the whole nursing process works. Wait until you get into a nursing program. It'll be much easier that way to learn rather than by yourself :)

alindberg · Oct 15, 2013

Why are you trying to learn this when you're not in a Nursing program? I'm not trying to be rude, just wondering...I have never had anyone interested in learning how to do care plans if it wasn't necessary. Usually people put it off as long as possible! LOL Care plans can be a lot of work and there's a lot more to it than just filling in the blanks with random answers. There's A LOT of critical thinking required to come up with and implement a plan of care. Also, quite a bit of knowledge base is required outside of just knowing those definitions.

mcclot1993 · Oct 18, 2013

The reason I am asking is I want to teach a lot of this stuff to myself before ever going into nursing school. I have a fundamentals of nursing and pharmacology and anatomy and physiology that I look at even a math for meds book too. but one question I hear you have to make nursing care plans in school but once your on the job whether in a hospital or nursing home where ever care plans are not hard to make. I hear a lot of them are pre made or that nurses do not have to worry about them somewhere along those lines.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2013

The reason I am asking is I want to teach a lot of this stuff to myself before ever going into nursing school. I have a fundamentals of nursing and pharmacology and anatomy and physiology that I look at even a math for meds book too. but one question I hear you have to make nursing care plans in school but once your on the job whether in a hospital or nursing home where ever care plans are not hard to make. I hear a lot of them are pre made or that nurses do not have to worry about them somewhere along those lines.

Wrong-o. There are places like that, but I review medical records for legal cases for a living, and I am here to tell ya that the good places take full advantage of a well-educated RN staff to plan and document the plans of care they develop and delegate/implement.

That said, you are waaaaaaaaay ahead of yourself. Take care of the prerequisites for nursing school, be solid on the science and arithmetic/algebra, and wait until you are a little closer to providing actual care before you start looking at nursing diagnosis that heavily.

Stephalump · Oct 18, 2013

Good for you for wanting to learn as much as you can!

I'd suggest going thorough the fundamentals book you bought and reviewing the nursing process. You should get a lot of answers to your questions there. Beyond that, you're attempting to put the puzzle together starting with the middle piece. Nursing school will start you with the edge pieces and everything will come together MUCH more smoothly.

LoriRNCM, ADN, ASN, RN · Oct 18, 2013

I know just what you mean, none of this stuff made any sense to me nine weeks ago. I am just now beginning to understand how to read my Nursing Diagnosis Pocket Guide, which is what we refer to in my program for our care plans. Rather than tell you that you are putting the cart before the horse, since I understand your quest for information all too well, I will tell you how that works for a student. You see a patient in your clinical, and you base your careplan on that patient's medical diagnoses. (Sometimes many) HOWEVER, you can't do a careplan with a medical diagnosis, you can only do a careplan with a nursing diagnosis. Nursing diagnoses involve the care of the patient in relation to the medical diagnosis, but are what you as a nurse will do. NOT the doctor. So say your patient has a medical diagnosis of pneumonia. Until you get good at it (probably not til you are a nurse, at least that's how I feel) you look up relevant nursing diagnoses related to pneumonia: self care deficit, deficient fluid volume, impaired gas exchange (not getting enough oxygen to the tissues), ineffective airway clearance...... there are many nursing diagnoses you can choose from that are relevant for your patient. So, say you choose impaired gas exchange, then you choose the related factors: why is he having impaired gas exchange? Ventilation perfusion changes or alveolar capillary membrane changes. Then you choose the defining characteristics or what my professor calls "As evidenced by". Such as Abnormal pH and blood gases levels (as evidenced by lab reports), Abnormal respiratory rate and rhythm and depth, cyanosis, etc etc. Then you choose expected outcomes. What do you want to see happen with your patient? You want to see something liked: Maintain normal respiratory rate within five breaths of baseline, carry out ADLs without weakness or fatigue, be free from adventitious breath sounds. Then you have to choose what you are planning to do to make your expected outcomes happen. These are your nursing interventions. They might be: Monitor VS, arterial blood gases, and Hb levels; Monitor respiratory status, rate and depth of breaths, chest expansion etc etc......... I hope this helps a little, it's nothing but a small paragraph to try to explain something it has taken me weeks to get used to.