Questions about Nursing Care plans?

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What do these things mean when it comes to nursing care plans

Common related factors-

Defining Characteristics-

Common Risk Factors-

Common Expected Outcome-

NOC outcomes and NIC Interventions-

Ongoing assessment actions/ interventions and rationales-

Therapeutic Intervention-

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

self care deficit is not a syndrome. I highly suggest you stop your care plan studies.....you are developing bad habits and that will hurt you in school. I know you are anxious and that you want to do well...but this may not be the best thing for you to do. I have seen many student try this and only find later that it actually didn't help.

Nursing care plans depend on the assessment of the patient and those all too ambiguous "critical thinking skills" that many new student find challenging. I would focus on the "hard core" essentials like anatomy and physiology to give yourself an edge. getting good grades in these subject has a gret impact on your competitiveness on getting into a program.

LPN and RN are different schools. LPN historically work in LTC/nursing homes in most of the country. while RN's will work acute care. THe nursing market is tough right now. Most hospitals are asking for BSN prepared RN's.

Many nurses find that going LPN then a LPN-BSN/RN bridge program is cheaper overall than a straight BSN program. Bde cautious of your LPN program that it is not expensive for you will run out of money/loans/financial aid before you reach any bridge programs.

Are you taking any pre-reqs yet?

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Specializes in Hospice.

You have the basic understanding of how to read the care plan book down, so that's a big step in itself, in my opinion. Believe me, that was a foreign language to me the first couple weeks. Just don't study it too much, because you don't want to be developing study practices that might ingrain themselves and end up being wrong about something. If you want to study something which you will use a lot and which you MUST memorize, I'd say study common lab values. Nursing school isn't usually about memorization...... except with lab values. And you can also study A & P (especially the body systems, like cardiovascular), and dosage and calculations (mainly household to metric conversions and dimensional analysis.) Good luck!

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I got a anatomy and physiology book at home plus I useful website I found, I have a book math for meds dosages and solutions for figuring out iv drip rates and so on. I have many laminated study guides for nursing that has normal ekg patterns, normal vital signs, CBC Count lab values, different blood tests, and a lot more. I might get me a book for microbiology. The reason why I mentioned the LPN thing in this forum because mostly everyone I talk to said trust me go for your RN or straight for your RN and skip LPN stuff. are lpns even going to be around that much longer.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I think LPN's will always have a place in healthcare. There are still states that have liberal nurse practice acts that allow the LPN a wide range of independent skills....Indiana is one.

The rumor has been going on all 35 years I have been a RN about phasing out the LPN and ADN/RN degrees. It hasn't happened yet. However in today's market.....having a BSN will get you considered sooner for the job.

Depending on your age, where you want to work and what you want should determine what you go to school for. RN's do get paid more than LPN's and have a wider choice of career goals than the LPN.

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I just hear BSN preferred for hospitals but doesn't mean you cant land a job in hospital with an ADN. I do hear not many LPNs do work in hospitals and are limited to Long term care but even though I do not see many LPN's in nursing homes it seems like everyone goes for their RN. There not even that many LPN programs I think left.

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Specializes in Hospice + Palliative.

are you enrolled in any pre-requisite classes now? I would strongly suggest focusing on those before doing any self-study of nursing texts. Getting through A+P should be your focus right now, IMO.

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I think I understand care plans now. Suppose someone suffered a stroke. They are unable to feed themselves or do not much of their ADL's so a nursing DX would be self care deficit syndrome. defining characteristics which backs up the diagnosis would be inability to feed self independently inability to dress self independently inability to bathe and groom self independently etc. Common related factors would be a CVA or cognitive impairment which might care the nursing diagnosis. Expected outcome would be patient safely performs self care activities. Non expected outcome would be patient does not perform self care activity. Ongoing assessment assess ability to carry out ADLs. The patient may only require assistance with some self care measures. Theurapeutic interventionsSet short range goals with the patient. Assisting the patient to set realistic goals will deacrease frustration. I think I have general knowledge on how to do care plans. The only question I got left it do I only have to pick a few interventions or just all of the interventions with a nursing diagnosis. You are right about pre reqs and stuff. I do have about a 180 page anatomy and physiology book at my house. I do not know if it goes into enough depth it talks about your cells and what is inside the cells like your lysosomes, and centrioles. It talks about your chromosomes and you DNA. It goes into each body system like it talks about the cells that make up your bone. Talks about layers of your muscles. Does it sound like it goes into enough depth of your body.[/quote']

There is more to care plans than just buying a care plan book and finding something you think fits. What works for one patient isn't going to work for another. It all depends on your assessment of your patient. Focus on your pre-reason right now. The LAST thing you want to do is learn something the wrong way because then you will struggle throughout nursing school.

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Yeah I guess your right. I thought the nursing DX would go with the medical diagnosis. I do have knowledge on how to read a care plan book though which is a good step atleast.

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Yeah I guess your right. I thought the nursing DX would go with the medical diagnosis. I do have knowledge on how to read a care plan book though which is a good step atleast.

I wouldn't worry about care plans yet. Focus on your classes now. Anyone can read a care plan book but you need to be able to understand and know what you are reading. You will get that in nursing school. Don't learn something the wrong way.

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Very true I know not just nurses go by care plans I know cnas pt, respiratory therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist all go by the plan of care. One thing can nurses write orders for anything. For example can a nurse write an order for Tylenol a patient who is in pain but the doctor has to sign it.

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One more question. what are nurses expect to teach patients. If someone is getting discharged isn't there always a teaching plan you have to do. what do you have to teach them. Or educate. Do nurses have implement a stress reduction program or a weight reduction program.

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OP I strongly recommend going and talking to a school of nursing you are considering. You really are putting the cart before the horse.

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