What Helped you Survive Care Plans?

SnowRain7489 · Jul 31, 2009

First of all...BREATHE...:icon_hug:There are reference books and Nursing care plan books, however my institution didn't like that we used them. My recommendation is to use your textbook for your rationales and other information. This is easier because you would've already read the chapters & you'll get alot of use for it (you did pay for it right?) not just the 1st care plan, but the subsequent ones to. You will remember information that you've previously looked up. Be thorough and concise. If you are at all stuck w/ a nursing diagnosis, outcome, or goal criteria post a thread on allnurses.com and we'll walk things through w/ you.

okchug · Jul 31, 2009

Care plans are only hard till you get the hang of it....then they make sense. You are addressing problems, teaching, or health promotion that YOU the nurse can help solve-not the medical problem/diagnosis. Also, you must have the patient data to back up your plan, so, when in clinicals get as much info as you can. & Since each plan is individualized, use the care plan books as guides to format and suggested interventions.

The biggest help for me was peer review (my clinical group read each others') and feedback from instructors. the first few plans may come back with lots of corrections, but don't take it personally. Use the feedback to improve.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2009

i answer the care plan questions all the time on allnurses. i understand them. you will see my answers to care plan questions if you look for them. the moderators have put some of my better posts into sticky threads. i often refer students who ask for help with a care plan but do not give me enough information to work with to this sticky thread: https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/help-care-plans-286986.html - help with care plans

here is the best advice i can give you. learn the nursing process and what goes on in each step and what you need to be doing in each step. the nursing process is our problem solving tool. during your entire career as an rn that is what you will be doing--solving all kinds of problems. it's what i did as an rn for over 30 years. it's what employers pay us to do. a care plan is nothing more than determining what a patient's nursing problems are and then coming up with strategies to do something about them--problem solving. then, you have to commit it to paper. for school, care plans often become equivalent to term papers students in other departments have to turn in and some nursing instructors go wild and ask for reference and footnotes. on the job, however, we do them fast and in as few words as possible. we are required to do them by federal law.

the nursing process is the tool we use for problem solving. it can work in all kinds of situations. it works for fixing a flat tire (see below). it works for answering questions on a test. it works for writing up care plans. it consists of 5 steps. step #1 is assessment. your instructors will spend some time teaching you how to assess patients. the data is needed to get to the patient's problems. all problems leave evidence of their existence which is why we assess. we are looking for that evidence. step #2 is taking the assessment information and picking out the evidence so we can determine what nursing problems are there. step #3 is the actual planning of how to do something about the problem(s). steps #3 and #4 are follow up after #1, 2, and 3 have been done.

if you can understand the following, then i have faith in your ability to figure out how to write a care plan:

you are driving along and suddenly you hear a bang, you start having trouble controlling your car's direction and it's hard to keep your hands on the steering wheel. you pull over to the side of the road. "what's wrong?" you're thinking. you look over the dashboard and none of the warning lights are blinking. you decide to get out of the car and take a look at the outside of the vehicle. you start walking around it. then, you see it. a huge nail is sticking out of one of the rear tires and the tire is noticeably deflated. what you have just done is step #1 of the nursing process--performed an assessment. you determine that you have a flat tire. you have just done step #2 of the nursing process--made a diagnosis. the little squirrel starts running like crazy in the wheel up in your brain. the spare tire needs to be put on the car. (your goal) "what do i do?" you are thinking. you could call aaa. no, you can save the money and do it yourself. you can replace the tire by changing out the flat one with the spare in the trunk. good thing you took that class in how to do simple maintenance and repairs on a car! you have just done step #3 of the nursing process--planning (developed a goal and intervention). you get the jack and spare tire out of the trunk, roll up your sleeves and get to work. you have just done step #4 of the nursing process--implementation of the plan. after the new tire is installed you put the flat one in the trunk along with the jack, dust yourself off, take a long drink of that bottle of water you had with you and prepare to drive off. you begin slowly to test the feel as you drive. good. everything seems fine. the spare tire seems to be ok and off you go and on your way. you have just done step #5 of the nursing process--evaluation (determined if your goal was met).

WI_home_RN · Jul 31, 2009

I myself have used care plan reference books in nursing school before becoming an RN and after. I have two, one for alterations in health and one for wellness. I highly suggest using them.

XYcsccSN · Jul 31, 2009

There is nothing hard about care plans. Yes, they do take time to complete for a good care plan but time doesn't mean difficult. Take your time and find correct rational, your instructors will see right trough any attempt to shortcut by using a rational that doesn't quite fit. One thing I did that ended up saving me time in later classes was to type all my care plans so it was easy to reuse rational instead of constantly looking up the same rational.

Sarah Hay · Jul 31, 2009

i was really scared to do them too. our professor of med-surg i made us do a care plan the day before our clinical for every clinical. the first two are the most difficult, i thought. they get easier as you do them and if you have sources like your textbook, that's great. at the end of med-surg i we had to do a very large careplan on one problem our last patient had and it was a minimum of five pages in length. after getting an a on that careplan, i'm sure i can handle any careplan you throw at me.

remember, practice makes perfect!

celclt · Jul 31, 2009

1.Stay postitive! Know that is may take a few tries but you will get the hang of the nursing process-it may be a love hate relationship at first, but it gets better. Also, block out the complaints of your classmates, it'll distract you!

2. Embrace the care map! really! lol

2. k.i.s.s.- keep it SIMPLE- be able to explain in your own words, not the care plan book's-sorry tough love! .Think what YOU as RN can do to help pt from ABC's down to Maslow's, then add multidisiplinary.

3. They do get easier/more automatic and every one done puts YOU closer to being an RN and taking great care of your patient- sounds sappy but that's the light @ the end of my tunnel!

4.oops- I always take my care plan forms to the floor with me the night before to gleen info from the chart-and take it to clinical to be sure I write down all I need. Seriously--get all the info you can out of the chart, if you can't read the writing or are lost w computer charting, ask for help-don't run in and run out--look up everything you don't know and handwriting down it helped me! Try to look at the big pic of labs,tests,changes during their stay,interventions or meds added or taken away, that way when you do your care plan you have tons of info and the beginning of a clear picture.

gillytook · Aug 1, 2009

Other than time consuming, they were relatively easy once as I understood them. Just remember what consumed the most of your time or was your primary focus while you were caring for you patient. That and good assessment skils and data collection will lead you to the rest.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Aug 1, 2009

let me also add that planning the care of any patient is a skill. a mental skill. all skills that we do whether they are physical or mental require practice in order for us to become accomplished at doing them. remember when you were learning to tie shoelaces? button clothes? probably not because you were very young at the time. little kids get very frustrated when they have to learn these very basic skills. at least, that is how you think of them now. how about riding a bike and maintaining your balance so you don't fall? can you remember that? can you remember what it was like to learn how to drive? it was a skill that none of us were good at, but we learned over time to get better with experience. the different things you will learn in nursing are no different. it will take time and lots of patience and practice. some skills will take a little longer than you like for you to master. it took me years to get really good at inserting ivs, but i was persistent about it and never gave up my quest to be good at it. my first care plan where i felt i really knew what i was doing was a year after i had graduated from nursing school. i've been on a roll ever since.

SnowRain7489 · Aug 6, 2009

Make sure and go to your clinical instructor BEFORE you turn in your FIRST care plan. Come to the appointment w/ questions about anything. Be sure to ask them things like: What am I doing wrong? What are my strengths and weaknesses? What should I be thinking when I write this care plan? -(if I think of any more I'll let ya know nrenteria)

Music in My Heart · Aug 6, 2009

Start on them early. I didn't find them too difficult in terms of concept but the mechanics of them were a bit tedious.

We were supposed to use journals rather than textbooks for references and it was often the case that you either couldn't get or couldn't get quickly the articles that you needed. I learned to start requesting papers from the library well before my care plan was due.

CINAHL and UpToDate are your friends.