any suggestions for a good nursing care plan book??

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Does anyone have any recommendations for a good nursing care plan book??

Thanks

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I actually was looking up stuff about a good care plan book today. You should try doing a search in the forums like I did. There are many threads about what the best care plan book is. I searched and I think I am going to go out and get the Nursing Diagnosis Handbook by Ackley and Ladwig.

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I agree with Ackley and Ladwig. That's the book that my school required and I think it's an excellent book!

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

it depends what you are looking for from the book. i have several, plus books with nursing interventions and books with nursing diagnosis information. what is it that you need?

a lot of people like nursing diagnosis handbook: a guide to planning care by betty j. ackley and gail b. ladwig for the reason that in section ii of the book is a cross index of suggestions for nursing diagnoses by medical disease or condition. section iii (the rest of the book) is the nursing diagnoses listed alphabetically along with nanda taxonomy information, some nic (nursing interventions classification) and noc (nursing outcomes classification) linkages, and what most people are really looking for: nursing interventions, some of them evidenced based.

if you have your own copy of
taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary
look in the appendixes. there should be a section on nursing diagnoses. included there is a section entitled "nursing diagnoses grouped by diseases/disorders".
mosby's medical, nursing, & allied health dictionary
has something similar in its appendix but it isn't as extensive as the one in taber's.

the only place i look to for nanda taxonomy information is the publication that comes directly from nanda itself. nanda-i nursing diagnoses: definitions & classification 2007-2008 cost me about $25. it is about to be replaced by the 2009-2010 edition which is being released next month. care plan books pay nanda a royalty to use that information in their care plan books. some others (like ackley and ladwig) add some changes of their own to it. i like going to the original source.

most of the currently published care plan books should include some of the nanda taxonomy in them. you need this to help you diagnose correctly. other places you can find taxonomy information is the appendix of
taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary
in the section entitled "nursing diagnoses through the ___ nanda conference in alphabetic order" and for limited nursing diagnoses on these two websites:

interventions, interestingly are not often asked about on the forums, so i assume that most people don't have trouble finding interventions for their patients problems. nursing textbooks should be loaded with them. nclex review books should have them. i have two supplemental books that give me specific information on some common interventions for specific problems:

  • nurse's 5-minute clinical consult: treatments from lippincott williams & wilkins
  • nurse's 5-minute clinical consult: procedures from lippincott williams & wilkins

that said, i have always like my care plan book by carpenito. i used it when i was writing care plans in a nursing home 10 years ago. i also like care plan books by doenges, moorhouse and murr. this is, however, based upon how these authors constructed the books and interventions. they were efficient for the work i was engaged in at the time. nursing care plans: guidelines for individualizing client care across the life span, 7th edition, by marilynn e. doenges, mary frances moorhouse and alice c. murr is an interesting care plan book. it is organized by medical disease. each care plan, however, begins with an assessment of what you are likely to find in a patient with that disease. assessment is something that many students falter on as newbies. doenges and moorhouse have been very active in nanda and follow on the heels on marjory gordon and her 11 functional health patterns, another assessment strategy. gordon was the first president of nanda in case you didn't know. assessment is what leads you to the choice of (a) diagnoses.

psych and ob, in particular, are not included in most care plan books. if it is still in publication, maternal/newborn plans of care: guidelines for individual care, 3rd edition, by marilynn e. doenges and mary frances moorhouse, is a good book for ob. manual of psychiatric nursing care plans: diagnoses, clinical tools, and pharmacology, 3rd edition by elizabeth m. vararolis is what i have. there is also a website that has some information on psychosocial nursing diagnosis: http://www.fadavis.com/townsend4e/additionalnursingcareplans.asp.

ok, so after all that gobbledygook, if you buy for nursing diagnoses, i would get nursing diagnosis handbook: a guide to planning care by betty j. ackley and gail b. ladwig. i think the 8th edition is the one being published now. if you buy for care plans by medical diseases get nursing care plans: guidelines for individualizing client care across the life span, 7th edition, by marilynn e. doenges, mary frances moorhouse and alice c. murr or one by carpenito-moyet (her new name). also all books can be viewed on the major booksellers websites. at least look at the table of contents page on those websites so you can see how the book is organized to give you an idea of what information is printed in it.

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I liked the all-in-one careplanning resource by Mosby

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