nursing care plan essay

Nursing Student's Ultimate Guide to Writing a Nursing Care Plan

Knowing how to write a good nursing care plan is critical for nursing students and practicing nurses. Care plans act as a tool that helps nursing students and nurses strategically manage the nursing process to solve different problems affecting a patient. Nursing care plans also allow effective communication within a nursing team for collaborative or individual decision-making.

In this guide, we take you through the basics of nursing care plans and steps to create the best and give examples/illustrations to make it simpler. With the best practices we outline in this guide, you can write a nursing care plan without worrying that your end product will be subpar.

This guide is valuable to nursing students as it comprehensively addresses what matters. Besides, it is written by professional nurse researchers collaborating with top talents/brains in the nursing industry. It is also updated regularly to capture any new developments as far as nursing care planning is concerned.

What is a Nursing Care Plan?

A nursing care plan, abbreviated as NCP, refers to a document that details the relevant information about the history and diagnosis of the patient, their current or potential care needs, treatment goals, risks, treatment priorities, and evaluation plan.

Nursing care plans are usually updated depending on the patient's stay at a facility, preferably during and after every shift.

As a nursing student, you will be assigned to write a nursing care plan based on a scenario. For example, your preceptor could also ask you to write a care plan based on a real patient hospitalized in a clinical center where you are doing your internship or practicum.

The process of care planning begins during admission. As we have said above, it gets updated throughout the patient's stay depending on the changes they exhibit and report and based on evaluation of the achievement of the set goals. When you can plan and execute a patient-centered care plan, you have mastered the art of giving quality and excellent nursing services to your patient.

Let's peek at why nursing care plans are written with a view of their professional and academic importance.

Reasons for Writing Nursing Care Plans

You must note that there are different types of nursing care plans, either formal or informal. The formal nursing care plans are roughly documented or exist in the minds of the nurse. On the other hand, formal nursing care plans are either written on paper or computerized to guide the nursing process. Formal nursing care plans can also be standardized or individualized/patient-centered. While the standardized care plans focus on a specific population or group of patients, say those with cardiac arrest or osteoporosis, the individualized or patient-centered care plans are customized to the unique needs of a specific patient that cannot be addressed through a standardized care plan.

Given the understanding of the typologies of nursing care plans, let's now look at why we write them. Nursing care plans are written, or they exist for different reasons, including:

• To promote the use of evidence-based practices in nursing care to address different healthcare needs of the patients
• Holistically caring for patients in recognition of the nursing metaparadigm (health, people, environment, and nursing)
• Enabling nursing teal collaboration through information sharing and collaborative decision-making
• Measuring the effectiveness of care and documenting the nursing process for care efficiency and compliance
• Offering patient-centered or individualized care to improve outcomes
• Identifying the unique roles of nurses in attending to the needs of the patient without constant consultation with physicians
• Allowing for continuity of care by allowing nurses from different shifts to render quality interventions to patients optimizes care outcomes.
• Guide for delegating duties and assigning specific staff to a patient, especially in cases of specialized care.
• Defining a patient's goals helps involve them in decision-making regarding their care.

The Main Components of a Nursing Care Plan

A well-written nursing care plan must have specific components. The main components of a nursing care plan (NCP) are:

• Expected outcomes
• Interventions
• Evaluations

Let's elaborate on these five main components of a nursing care plan.

• Assessment. Assessments are akin to data collection. It entails a detail of the physical, emotional, sexual, psychosocial, cultural, spiritual/transpersonal, cognitive, functional, age-related, economic, and environmental. Nursing assessments, combined with the results of medical findings and diagnostic studies, are documented in the client database and form the foundation for developing the client's care plan. The assessment is facilitated through observations for objective data and interviews with patients and their significant others or family for subjective data.
• Diagnosis. With a correct assessment, a nursing care plan details the clinical judgment that helps nurses determine the care plan or interventions for the specific patient.
• Expected outcomes. The outcomes entail the specific, measurable actions for a patient to be achieved within a specific time. The outcomes can be short, medium and long-term depending on the patient's condition.
• Interventions. This entails planning for actions to be taken to achieve the set goals of the patients and expected outcomes, including the rationale behind them. The rationale is evidence-based practices drawn from clinical guidelines, standard operating procedures, evidence-based guidelines, and best practices.
• Evaluations. This section of a nursing care plan entails a set of steps to determine the effectiveness of a nursing intervention or nursing interventions to assess whether the expected outcomes have been met.

What makes a good nursing care plan?

A good nursing care plan contains information about the patient's diagnosis, immediate and changing care needs, treatment goals, specific nursing interventions, and an evaluation plan to determine the effectiveness of care. Such a nursing care plan document can only be achieved through observing certain care plan fundamentals.

• The care plan must answer the questions of what, why, and how.
• A successful care plan uses the fundamental aspects of critical thinking to come up with a patient-centered approach to care
• Follows evidence-based practice guidelines when developing interventions or explaining the rationale for actions
• Has SMART goals for the patients
• Allows for effective communication
• Sharable and easily accessible. If written, it should be legible to everyone else. If you are typing it, use a readable font and good formatting.
• Up to date. It entails the latest information about the patient and changes in their conditions.

Steps for Writing a Nursing Care Plan

You will be assigned a patient scenario or case study as a student. These can be actual case studies from real cases happening on hospital floors or cases created to facilitate teaching and learning. As a professional nurse, you will write the case study based on your patient's condition. Given the understanding of the five main components of a nursing care plan, we also say that nursing care plans follow a five-step framework.

1. Assessment

The first step of writing a nursing care plan is to practice critical thinking skills and perform data collection. During this phase, you collect subjective and objective data. The source of subjective data is an interview with the caretakers, family members, or friends of the patient and the patient. The objective data are observed or measured by you, such as weight, height, heart rate, and respiratory rates. In this section of your nursing care plan, you will include the following:

• Verbal statements from the patient and those accompanying them
• Vital signs (heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, temperature, oxygen saturation)
• Physical complaints (headache, vomiting, nausea, pain, swelling)
• Body conditions (head-to-toe assessments)
• Medical history
• Physical features (height and weight)
• Concerns, perceptions, and feelings of the patient
• Lab findings
• Diagnostic tests (EKG, X-ray, echocardiogram, etc.)

2. Diagnosis

The success of this section depends on the accuracy of the data collected from the first part. Next, you need to select a nursing diagnosis that fits the goals and objectives of hospitalization. The diagnosis step entails analyzing the data from the first step or assessment. Writing good nursing diagnoses is a step in the right direction toward choosing nursing strategies targeting specific desired outcomes.

According to NANDA , nursing diagnosis is a clinical judgment about the human response to life processes or conditions. It also refers to vulnerability to that response by an individual, group, community, or family.

When writing a nursing diagnosis, it is essential to formulate it based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid so that you can prioritize treatments and interventions. For instance, you need to prioritize the basic physiological needs before the higher needs, such as self-actualization and self-esteem. The rationale for first addressing the physiological/safety needs is that they form the foundations for nursing processes (care and intervention planning).

A good diagnosis identifies a problem (current health problem and the nursing interventions required), the risk factors or etiology (reasons for the problem/condition), and the characteristics of the problem (signs and symptoms).

Nursing diagnoses can be categorized into:

• Problem-focused diagnoses . The problems that present during the assessment of the patient. This is the actual diagnosis based on signs and symptoms. It could include shortness of breath, anxiety, acute pain, impaired skin integrity, etc.
• Risk nursing diagnoses . These are clinical judgments that a problem does not exist. However, the presence of risk factors predisposes the patient to the problem unless specific interventions are taken. Examples can include the risk of falls as evidenced by weak bones, the risk of injury as evidenced by altered mobility, the risk of infection as evidenced by immunosuppression, etc.
• Health Promotion or wellness diagnosis is a clinical judgment about the desire and motivation to increase well-being or reach one's health potential.
• Syndrome diagnoses . The clinical judgment concerns and combination of risk nursing diagnoses or problems that can occur due to specific events. Examples include chronic pain syndrome, frail elderly syndrome, etc.

You can read more from Nightingale College concerning nursing diagnosis .

Note that the nursing diagnoses will change as the client progresses through various stages of illness or maladaptation to resolve the problem or to the conclusion of a condition. Therefore, every decision must be time-bound, given that decisions might change as additional information is gathered.

When writing a student nursing care plan, you must provide a rationale for a specific diagnosis. This means including in-text citations from peer-reviewed nursing journal articles.

3. Outcomes

After writing the diagnosis section, you need to develop SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals based on evidence-based practice (EBP) guidelines and client-centered. To do this, you must consider the patient's overall condition, relevant information, and diagnosis.

The goals and desired outcomes describe what you expect to achieve by implementing specific nursing interventions or actions based on the diagnoses. The goals direct the intervention planning process and serve to evaluate the client's progress. When writing the goals, consider the medical diagnosis made by ad advanced healthcare practitioner or physician. It could include COPD, chronic kidney disease, heart failure, diabetes mellitus, diabetes ketoacidosis, obesity, thyroidectomy, hyper/hypothyroidism, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, endocarditis, eating disorders, acid-based balance disorders, fluid/electrolyte imbalance, etc.

The goals of the patient and expected outcomes can be short-term or long-term. Short-term goals immediately focus on the shift in behavior, mainly within a few hours or days. Long-term goals are objectives to be met over a long period, months or weeks.

When writing the goals and desired outcomes, you must include the subject, verb, conditions or modified, and criterion. Usually, they are written in the future tense.

Let's explore the four components:

• Subject. This refers to the client, any part of the client, or some attribute of the client. It could be vitals (temperature, urinary output, blood pressure)
• Verb. This specifies the specific action that the client will perform.
• Conditions or modifiers. These are the "what, where, when, and how?" added to the verb to explain the situations under which behavior is performed.
• Criterion . These are indicators of the standard by which a performance is measured and evaluated or the level at which the patient can comfortably and efficiently perform a given behavior or action.

Examples of goals and outcomes

• The patient will demonstrate adequate cardiac output as evidenced by vital signs within acceptable limits, no symptoms of heart failure, and absence of dysrhythmias.
• The client will identify individual nutritional needs within 36 hours
• The client will ambulate using a cane within 24 hours of surgery

4.  Nursing Interventions

Planning for nursing interventions or strategies is also called the implementation stage. You will be performing various nursing interventions, including following doctor's orders. Every intervention should be developed using evidence-based practice guidelines.

Interventions are classified into seven domains: family, physiological, community, complex physiological, safety, health system, and behavioral interventions. They can be implemented during shifts. Some interventions include pain assessment, listening, preventing falls, administering fluids, etc.

Nursing interventions refer to a set of activities or actions undertaken by a nurse in response to the diagnosis to achieve expected outcomes and meet a patient's goals.

The interventions majorly focus on eliminating or reducing the etiology of the nursing diagnosis. There are different types of nursing interventions:

• Independent nursing interventions . These are activities that the nurses can initiate based on their licensing, clinical judgment, and skills. They include ongoing assessments, emotional support, empathy, providing comfort, patient education, and referrals to other healthcare professionals.
• Dependent nursing interventions . These are activities undertaken through orders from physicians or supervisors. These can be orders to give specific medications, perform diagnostic tests, treatments, diets, or activities.
• Collaborative nursing interventions . Nurses undertake these actions in collaboration with other healthcare team members such as dietitians, physicians, social workers, and therapists.

When selecting a nursing intervention, it should be evidence-based, safe, appropriate for the client's age, health, and condition, and achievable. Every nursing intervention is followed with rationales, which are specific explanations about why a nursing intervention is the most appropriate given the diagnosis and the goals. When giving the rationales, you are expected to refer to your pathophysiological and psychological principles as a student. This means including in-text citations from peer-reviewed journals or clinical practice guidelines to support the choice of a specific intervention.

Nursing interventions are based on your identified needs during data collection or assessment. The timelines for the outcomes should reflect the anticipated length of stay and the individualized nurse-client expectations. You can create a mind map when conceptualizing the needs of the patient/client. The tool helps visualize the link between symptoms and interventions. It is why you will sometimes be asked by an instructor to do a NANDA concept or mind map before writing a nursing care plan assignment.

When writing a nursing strategy or intervention, you should be very specific. You should begin with an action verb that indicates what you are expected to do. You should also include qualifiers expressing how, when, where, time, amount, and frequency of the planned activity. For example:

• "Assist as needed with self-care activities each morning."
• "Record respiratory and pulse rates before, during, and after ambulating."
• "instruct the family in post-discharge care."

5. Evaluation and Documentation

This is the last step of the nursing care plan. As nursing care is provided, you will undertake ongoing assessments to evaluate the client's response to therapy and achieve the expected outcomes.

You should document the response to interventions, which is pretty much what evaluation is about. You can then adjust the care plan based on the information.

Evaluation helps identify the effectiveness of the nursing care plan. It also helps determine if the nursing processes were effective or if there is a need to terminate, continue, or change them.

When evaluating outcomes, you must label them as met, ongoing, or not. You can then decide whether the goals of the intervention need to be altered.

In most cases, all the goals are expected to be met by the time of discharge. However, you must prepare for that transition if a patient is discharged to a long-term care facility, nursing home, or hospice.

If everything is okay, you should document the nursing care plan (NCP) per the hospital's policy or standard operating procedure.

Nursing Care Plan Template for Nursing Students

Your instructor will give you a case study or patient scenario to write a nursing care plan. Some instructors also allow you to develop a nursing case study and write an appropriate nursing care plan. You can also use a real case from your shadowing, internship, or practicum experience. Whichever the case, you can use the template below if none is given. You should organize the nursing care plan into columns for easier entry and organization.

Your introduction should briefly revisit the case study. If requested, expound on the etiology of the medical diagnosis in the background section. The next section is your nursing care plan with columns of assessment, diagnosis, goals and outcomes, interventions, and evaluation, making it 5 columns . Some instructors only want three columns for nursing diagnosis, outcomes and evaluation, and interventions, while others insist on four columns for nursing diagnosis, goals and outcomes, interventions, and evaluation. Below is an example of the nursing care plan section:

The next section can include discharge planning, medication management, rest and activities, diet planning, ongoing care, sleeping, and follow-up.

Finally, write a conclusion that summarizes the entire nursing care plan and include a list of the references you used when writing the nursing care plan.

Sample Nursing Care Plan for Schizophrenia

Nursing Diagnosis : Ineffective coping skills and risk for hematologic side effects of Clozapine

Goals and expected outcomes

• To remain stable on medication and to transition into a less restrictive environment.
• Adequate rest and nutritional intake
• Establish communication and build trust, and encourage patients to participate in the therapeutic community.
• Increase ability to communicate with others.
• Symptom management; decrease in hallucination, delusions, and other psychotic features such as self-talk
• Increase self-esteem
• Subjective and Objective reduction of psychotic symptoms (an irrational behavior)
• Adhere to recommended therapy, including medications, psychotherapy, and lab appointments for hematology.

Nursing Interventions

• Assist the patient in identifying strengths and coping abilities ( nursing interventions) . Strength-based approaches help better recover schizophrenic patients (Xie, 2013). Emphasis on strength is a positive coping mechanism proven to buffer the impact of negative symptoms and promote rehabilitation of patients with schizophrenia (Tian et al., 2019). ( rationale)
• Meet monthly with the clinical team. Interprofessional teams help in the effective management of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Psychiatrists and pharmacists can help improve the patient's status (Farinde, 2013).
• Obtain weekly Vital Signs. Interprofessional teams help in the effective management of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Psychiatrists and pharmacists can help improve the patient's status (Farinde, 2013).
• Encourage all medications as prescribed. Adherence to pharmacological treatment helps alleviate the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia, v. Non-adherence could lead to deterioration of the symptoms (El-Mallakh & Findlay, 2015).
• Provide opportunities for self-reflection, self-care, positive self-image, and effective communication. Encouraging healthy habits among schizophrenic patients helps optimize functioning, such as drug adherence, maintenance of sleep, reduced stress levels, self-care maintenance, and anxiety (Tian et al., 2019).
• Encourage outings and identify opportunities to reduce anxiety -enjoy music, poetry, and creative writing, and connect with a church spiritual group. Empathy helps the patient perceive the caregivers as caring and makes them feel accepted. It also helps the patients maintain positive coping mechanisms (Peixoto, Mour'o, & Serpa Junior, 2016).
• Monitor lab results (WBC and ANC) and report significant changes per Clozapine guidelines. Patients taking Clozapine must be monitored frequently as they are more predisposed to serious blood dyscrasias. In addition, discontinuing WBC monitoring after 6 months of starting the drug could lead to mortality and accidents (Kar, Barreto & Chandavarkar, 2016).
• Monitor for hematologic side effects: Neutropenia, leukopenia, agranulocytosis, and thrombocytopenia (secondary to bone marrow suppression caused by Clozapine). Clozapine has serious side effects such as seizures, cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, neutropenia, ad agranulocytosis (Dixon & Dada, 2014).
• Instruct patient to report any side effects, illness, s/s of infection, fatigue, or bruising without apparent cause. Constant monitoring of psychotic symptoms helps change treatment (Holder, 2014). For instance, it can help determine if the antipsychotic medication is not working and include evidence-based psychosocial interventions (Stroup & Marder, 2015).
• Monitor anticholinergic effects; dry mouth, difficulty urinating, constipation.
• Monitor for reduction/increase of psychotic symptoms
• Discourage caffeine. Caffeine interacts with Clozapine and can lead to toxicosis. It increases the plasma concentrations of Clozapine (De Berardis et al., 2019). Caffeine inhibits the metabolism of Clozapine through the inhibition of CYP1A2 (Delacr�taz et al., 2018)
• The patient will have reduced symptoms, adhere to medication, and show improvement.
• The patient will control his feelings, perceptions, and thought processes.
• Social increasing ease of communication since starting Clozaril (date). The patient will easily interact with caregivers, family, and other patients.
• The patient will acknowledge the importance of medication in lowering suspicion.
• Self-talk has diminished since admission. The patient will also exhibit high self-esteem levels.
• The patient will have reduced anxiety and violent behavior and have remission.

Brekke, I. J., Puntervoll, L. H., Pedersen, P. B., Kellett, J., & Brabrand, M. (2019). The value of vital sign trends in predicting and monitoring clinical deterioration: A systematic review. PloS one , 14 (1), e0210875. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210875

De Berardis, D., Rapini, G., Olivieri, L., Di Nicola, D., Tomasetti, C., Valchera, A., ... & Serafini, G. (2018). Safety of antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia: a focus on the adverse effects of Clozapine. Therapeutic advances in drug safety, 9(5), 237-256.

Delacr'taz, A., Vandenberghe, F., Glatard, A., Levier, A., Dubath, C., Ansermot, N.,  Eap, C. B. (2018). Association Between Plasma Caffeine and Other Methylxanthines and Metabolic Parameters in a Psychiatric Population Treated with Psychotropic Drugs Inducing Metabolic Disturbances. Frontiers in psychiatry , 9 , 573. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00573

Dixon, M., & Dada, C. (2014). How clozapine patients can be monitored safely and effectively.  The Pharmaceutical Journal, 6 (5), 131.

El-Mallakh, P., & Findlay, J. (2015). Strategies to improve medication adherence in patients with schizophrenia: the role of support services. Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 11 , 10771090. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S56107

Farinde, A. (2013). Interprofessional Management of Psychotic Disorders and Psychotropic Medication Polypharmacy.  Health and Interprofessional Practice, 1 (4), 4.

Holder, D., S. (2014). Schizophrenia. American Family Physician, 90 (11), 775-782.

Kar, N., Barreto, S., & Chandavarkar, R. (2016). Clozapine Monitoring in Clinical Practice: Beyond the Mandatory Requirement. Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience: the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 14 (4), 323�329. https://doi.org/10.9758/cpn.2016.14.4.323

Lantta, T., H�t�nen, H. M., Kontio, R., Zhang, S., & V�lim�ki, M. (2016). Risk assessment for aggressive behavior in schizophrenia.  The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 2016 (10). https://doi.org/ 10.1002/14651858.CD012397

Peixoto, M. M., Mour�o, A. C. D. N., & Serpa Junior, O. D. D. (2016). Coming to terms with the other's perspective: empathy in the relation between psychiatrists and persons diagnosed with schizophrenia.  Ciencia & saude coletiva, 21 (3), 881-890.

Stroup, T. S., & Marder, S. (2015). Pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia: Acute and maintenance phase treatment.  UpToDate .

Tian, C. H., Feng, X. J., Yue, M., Li, S. L., Jing, S. Y., & Qiu, Z. Y. (2019). Positive Coping and Resilience as Mediators between Negative Symptoms and Disability among Patients with Schizophrenia . Frontiers in psychiatry, 10 , 641.

Xie, H. (2013). Strengths-based approach for mental health recovery. Iranian journal of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, 7 (2), 5�10.

Writing the best nursing care plan can sound easy on paper, but the process is demanding and tiresome. If you are a nursing student who wants to delegate writing nursing care plans to someone who can help you do so accurately, affordably, and reliably, you can trust our care plan writers.

We are a nursing writing service website that offers assistance with completing various nursing assignments. The writers are experienced in research and writing nursing papers online. To date, we have supported the dreams of many nursing students, saving them time and money and maintaining their mental health.

Do not miss a deadline because you are busy with a shift; we can take over and make great things happen. Our nursing care plans are original, 100% plagiarism-free, and submitted to your email within your selected deadline. We also allow you to communicate with your writer to make changes together, share perspectives, and exchange ideas.

We can help you write care plans for type 2 diabetes, risk for injury, acute kidney injury, pressure ulcer, pulmonary embolism, chest pain, hypoglycemia, dementia, PTSD, hyperlipidemia, UTI, asthma, CHF, atrial fibrillation, bipolar disorder, risk for fall, ineffective coping, anemia, seizure, constipation, and any other condition or diagnosis.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you need help.

Important NOTICE!

The information in this article and the website is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease.

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How to Write a Nursing Care Plan

Nursing care plan components, nursing care plan fundamentals.

Knowing how to write a nursing care plan is essential for nursing students and nurses. Why? Because it gives you guidance on what the patient’s main nursing problem is, why the problem exists, and how to make it better or work towards a positive end goal. In this article, we'll dig into each component to show you exactly how to write a nursing care plan. 

A nursing care plan has several key components including, 

• Nursing diagnosis
• Expected outcome
• Nursing interventions and rationales

Each of the five main components is essential to the overall nursing process and care plan. A properly written care plan must include these sections otherwise, it won’t make sense!

• Nursing diagnosis - A clinical judgment that helps nurses determine the plan of care for their patients
• Expected outcome - The measurable action for a patient to be achieved in a specific time frame. 
• Nursing interventions and rationales - Actions to be taken to achieve expected outcomes and reasoning behind them.
• Evaluation - Determines the effectiveness of the nursing interventions and determines if expected outcomes are met within the time set.

>> Related: What is the Nursing Process?

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Before writing a nursing care plan, determine the most significant problems affecting the patient. Think about medical problems but also psychosocial problems. At times, a patient's psychosocial concerns might be more pressing or even holding up discharge instead of the actual medical issues. 

After making a list of problems affecting the patient and corresponding nursing diagnosis, determine which are the most important. Generally, this is done by considering the ABCs (Airway, Breathing, Circulation). However, these will not ALWAYS be the most significant or even relevant for your patient. 

Step 1: Assessment

The first step in writing an organized care plan includes gathering subjective and objective nursing data . Subjective data is what the patient tells us their symptoms are, including feelings, perceptions, and concerns. Objective data is observable and measurable.

This information can come from, 

Verbal statements from the patient and family

Vital signs

Blood pressure

Respirations

Temperature

Oxygen Saturation

Physical complaints

Body conditions

Head-to-toe assessment findings

Medical history

Height and weight

Intake and output

Patient feelings, concerns, perceptions

Laboratory data

Diagnostic testing

Echocardiogram

Step 2: Diagnosis

Using the information and data collected in Step 1, a nursing diagnosis is chosen that best fits the patient, the goals, and the objectives for the patient’s hospitalization. 

According to North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA), defines a nursing diagnosis as “a clinical judgment about the human response to health conditions/life processes, or a vulnerability for that response, by an individual, family, group or community.”

A nursing diagnosis is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid and helps prioritize treatments. Based on the nursing diagnosis chosen, the goals to resolve the patient’s problems through nursing implementations are determined in the next step. 

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There are 4 types of nursing diagnoses.  

Problem-focused - Patient problem present during a nursing assessment is known as a problem-focused diagnosis

Risk - Risk factors require intervention from the nurse and healthcare team prior to a real problem developing

Health promotion - Improve the overall well-being of an individual, family, or community

Syndrome - A cluster of nursing diagnoses that occur in a pattern or can all be addressed through the same or similar nursing interventions

After determining which type of the four diagnoses you will use, start building out the nursing diagnosis statement. 

The three main components of a nursing diagnosis are:

Problem and its definition - Patient’s current health problem and the nursing interventions needed to care for the patient.

Etiology or risk factors - Possible reasons for the problem or the conditions in which it developed

Defining characteristics or risk factors - Signs and symptoms that allow for applying a specific diagnostic label/used in the place of defining characteristics for risk nursing diagnosis

PROBLEM-FOCUSED DIAGNOSIS

Problem-Focused Diagnosis related to ______________________ (Related Factors) as evidenced by _________________________ (Defining Characteristics).

RISK DIAGNOSIS

The correct statement for a NANDA-I nursing diagnosis would be: Risk for _____________ as evidenced by __________________________ (Risk Factors).

Step 3: Outcomes and Planning

After determining the nursing diagnosis, it is time to create a SMART goal based on evidence-based practices. SMART is an acronym that stands for,

It is important to consider the patient’s medical diagnosis, overall condition, and all of the data collected. A medical diagnosis is made by a physician or advanced healthcare practitioner.  It’s important to remember that a medical diagnosis does not change if the condition is resolved, and it remains part of the patient’s health history forever. 

Examples of medical diagnosis include, 

Chronic Lung Disease (CLD)

Alzheimer’s Disease

Endocarditis

Plagiocephaly 

Congenital Torticollis 

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

It is also during this time you will consider goals for the patient and outcomes for the short and long term. These goals must be realistic and desired by the patient. For example, if a goal is for the patient to seek counseling for alcohol dependency during the hospitalization but the patient is currently detoxing and having mental distress - this might not be a realistic goal. 

Step 4: Implementation

Now that the goals have been set, you must put the actions into effect to help the patient achieve the goals. While some of the actions will show immediate results (ex. giving a patient with constipation a suppository to elicit a bowel movement) others might not be seen until later on in the hospitalization. 

The implementation phase means performing the nursing interventions outlined in the care plan. Interventions are classified into seven categories: 

Physiological

Complex physiological

Health system interventions

Some interventions will be patient or diagnosis-specific, but there are several that are completed each shift for every patient:

Pain assessment

Position changes

Fall prevention

Providing cluster care

Infection control

Step 5: Evaluation 

The fifth and final step of the nursing care plan is the evaluation phase. This is when you evaluate if the desired outcome has been met during the shift. There are three possible outcomes, 

Based on the evaluation, it can determine if the goals and interventions need to be altered. Ideally, by the time of discharge, all nursing care plans, including goals should be met. Unfortunately, this is not always the case - especially if a patient is being discharged to hospice, home care, or a long-term care facility. Initially, you will find that most care plans will have ongoing goals that might be met within a few days or may take weeks. It depends on the status of the patient as well as the desired goals. 

Consider picking goals that are achievable and can be met by the patient. This will help the patient feel like they are making progress but also provide relief to the nurse because they can track the patient’s overall progress. 

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Nursing care plans contain information about a patient’s diagnosis, goals of treatment, specific nursing interventions, and an evaluation plan. The nursing plan is constantly updated with changes and new subjective and objective data. 

Key aspects of the care plan include,

Outcome and Planning

Implementation

Through subjective and objective data, constantly assessing your patient’s physical and mental well-being, and the goals of the patient/family/healthcare team, a nursing care plan can be a helpful and powerful tool.

*This website is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease.

Kathleen Gaines (nee Colduvell) is a nationally published writer turned Pediatric ICU nurse from Philadelphia with over 13 years of ICU experience. She has an extensive ICU background having formerly worked in the CICU and NICU at several major hospitals in the Philadelphia region. After earning her MSN in Education from Loyola University of New Orleans, she currently also teaches for several prominent Universities making sure the next generation is ready for the bedside. As a certified breastfeeding counselor and trauma certified nurse, she is always ready for the next nursing challenge.

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Nursing Care Plans (NCP) Ultimate Guide and List

Writing the  best   nursing care plan  requires a step-by-step approach to complete the parts needed for a care plan correctly. This tutorial will walk you through developing a care plan. This guide has the ultimate database and list of nursing care plans (NCP) and nursing diagnosis samples  for our student nurses and professional nurses to use—all for free! Care plan components, examples, objectives, and purposes are included with a detailed guide on writing an excellent nursing care plan or a template for your unit. 

Table of Contents

Standardized care plans, individualized care plans, purposes of a nursing care plan, three-column format, four-column format, student care plans, step 1: data collection or assessment, step 2: data analysis and organization, step 3: formulating your nursing diagnoses, step 4: setting priorities, short-term and long-term goals, components of goals and desired outcomes, types of nursing interventions, step 7: providing rationale, step 8: evaluation, step 9: putting it on paper, basic nursing and general care plans, surgery and perioperative care plans, cardiac care plans, endocrine and metabolic care plans, gastrointestinal, hematologic and lymphatic, infectious diseases, integumentary, maternal and newborn care plans, mental health and psychiatric, musculoskeletal, neurological, pediatric nursing care plans, reproductive, respiratory, recommended resources, references and sources, what is a nursing care plan.

A  nursing care plan (NCP)  is a formal process that correctly identifies existing needs and recognizes a client’s potential needs or risks. Care plans provide a way of communication among nurses, their patients, and other healthcare providers to achieve healthcare outcomes. Without the nursing care planning process, the quality and consistency of patient care would be lost.

Nursing care planning begins when the client is admitted to the agency and is continuously updated throughout in response to the client’s changes in condition and evaluation of goal achievement. Planning and delivering individualized or patient-centered care is the basis for excellence in nursing practice .

Types of Nursing Care Plans

Care plans can be informal or formal: An informal nursing care plan is a strategy of action that exists in the nurse ‘s mind. A  formal nursing care plan is a written or computerized guide that organizes the client’s care information.

Formal care plans are further subdivided into standardized care plans and individualized care plans:  Standardized care plans specify the nursing care for groups of clients with everyday needs.  Individualized care plans are tailored to meet a specific client’s unique needs or needs that are not addressed by the standardized care plan.

Standardized care plans are pre-developed guides by the nursing staff and health care agencies to ensure that patients with a particular condition receive consistent care. These care plans are used to ensure that minimally acceptable criteria are met and to promote the efficient use of the nurse’s time by removing the need to develop common activities that are done repeatedly for many of the clients on a nursing unit.

Standardized care plans are not tailored to a patient’s specific needs and goals and can provide a starting point for developing an individualized care plan .

Care plans listed in this guide are standard care plans which can serve as a framework or direction to develop an individualized care plan.

An individualized care plan care plan involves tailoring a standardized care plan to meet the specific needs and goals of the individual client and use approaches shown to be effective for a particular client. This approach allows more personalized and holistic care better suited to the client’s unique needs, strengths, and goals.

Additionally, individualized care plans can improve patient satisfaction . When patients feel that their care is tailored to their specific needs, they are more likely to feel heard and valued, leading to increased satisfaction with their care. This is particularly important in today’s healthcare environment , where patient satisfaction is increasingly used as a quality measure.

Tips on how to individualize a nursing care plan:

• Perform a comprehensive assessment of the patient’s health, history, health status, and desired goals.
• Involve the patient in the care planning process by asking them about their health goals and preferences. By involving the client, nurses can ensure that the care plan is aligned with the patient’s goals and preferences which can improve patient engagement and compliance with the care plan.
• Perform an ongoing assessment and evaluation as the patient’s health and goals can change. Adjust the care plan accordingly.

The following are the goals and objectives of writing a nursing care plan:

• Promote evidence-based nursing care and render pleasant and familiar conditions in hospitals or health centers.
• Support holistic care , which involves the whole person, including physical, psychological, social, and spiritual, with the management and prevention of the disease.
• Establish programs such as care pathways and care bundles. Care pathways involve a team effort to reach a consensus regarding standards of care and expected outcomes. In contrast, care bundles are related to best practices concerning care for a specific disease.
• Identify and distinguish goals and expected outcomes.
• Review communication and documentation of the care plan.
• Measure nursing care.

The following are the purposes and importance of writing a nursing care plan:

• Defines nurse’s role. Care plans help identify nurses’ unique and independent role in attending to clients’ overall health and well-being without relying entirely on a physician’s orders or interventions.
• Provides direction for individualized care of the client.  It serves as a roadmap for the care that will be provided to the patient and allows the nurse to think critically in developing interventions directly tailored to the individual.
• Continuity of care. Nurses from different shifts or departments can use the data to render the same quality and type of interventions to care for clients, therefore allowing clients to receive the most benefit from treatment.
• Coordinate care. Ensures that all members of the healthcare team are aware of the patient’s care needs and the actions that need to be taken to meet those needs preventing gaps in care.
• Documentation . It should accurately outline which observations to make, what nursing actions to carry out, and what instructions the client or family members require. If nursing care is not documented correctly in the care plan, there is no evidence the care was provided.
• Serves as a guide for assigning a specific staff to a specific client.  There are instances when a client’s care needs to be assigned to staff with particular and precise skills.
• Monitor progress. To help track the patient’s progress and make necessary adjustments to the care plan as the patient’s health status and goals change.
• Serves as a guide for reimbursement.  The insurance companies use the medical record to determine what they will pay concerning the hospital care received by the client.
• Defines client’s goals. It benefits nurses and clients by involving them in their treatment and care.

A nursing care plan (NCP) usually includes nursing diagnoses , client problems, expected outcomes, nursing interventions , and rationales . These components are elaborated on below:

• Client health assessment , medical results, and diagnostic reports are the first steps to developing a care plan. In particular, client assessment relates to the following areas and abilities: physical, emotional, sexual, psychosocial, cultural, spiritual/transpersonal, cognitive, functional, age-related, economic, and environmental. Information in this area can be subjective and objective.
• Nursing diagnosis . A nursing diagnosis is a statement that describes the patient’s health issue or concern. It is based on the information gathered about the patient’s health status during the assessment.
• Expected client outcomes. These are specific goals that will be achieved through nursing interventions . These may be long and short-term.
• Nursing interventions . These are specific actions that will be taken to address the nursing diagnosis and achieve expected outcomes . They should be based on best practices and evidence-based guidelines.
• Rationales. These are evidence-based explanations for the nursing interventions specified.
• Evaluation . These includes plans for monitoring and evaluating a patient’s progress and making necessary adjustments to the care plan as the patient’s health status and goals change.

Care Plan Formats

Nursing care plan formats are usually categorized or organized into four columns: (1) nursing diagnoses, (2) desired outcomes and goals, (3) nursing interventions, and (4) evaluation. Some agencies use a three-column plan where goals and evaluation are in the same column. Other agencies have a five-column plan that includes a column for assessment cues.

The three-column plan has a column for nursing diagnosis, outcomes and evaluation, and interventions.

This format includes columns for nursing diagnosis, goals and outcomes, interventions, and evaluation.

Below is a document containing sample templates for the different nursing care plan formats. Please feel free to edit, modify, and share the template.

Download: Printable Nursing Care Plan Templates and Formats

Student care plans are more lengthy and detailed than care plans used by working nurses because they serve as a learning activity for the student nurse.

Care plans by student nurses are usually required to be handwritten and have an additional column for “Rationale” or “Scientific Explanation” after the nursing interventions column. Rationales are scientific principles that explain the reasons for selecting a particular nursing intervention.

Writing a Nursing Care Plan

How do you write a nursing care plan (NCP)? Just follow the steps below to develop a care plan for your client.

The first step in writing a nursing care plan is to create a client database using assessment techniques and data collection methods ( physical assessment , health history , interview, medical records review, and diagnostic studies). A client database includes all the health information gathered . In this step, the nurse can identify the related or risk factors and defining characteristics that can be used to formulate a nursing diagnosis. Some agencies or nursing schools have specific assessment formats you can use.

Critical thinking is key in patient assessment, integrating knowledge across sciences and professional guidelines to inform evaluations. This process, crucial for complex clinical decision-making , aims to identify patients’ healthcare needs effectively, leveraging a supportive environment and reliable information

Now that you have information about the client’s health, analyze, cluster, and organize the data to formulate your nursing diagnosis, priorities, and desired outcomes.

Nursing diagnoses are a uniform way of identifying, focusing on and dealing with specific client needs and responses to actual and high-risk problems. Actual or potential health problems that can be prevented or resolved by independent nursing intervention are termed nursing diagnoses.

We’ve detailed the steps on how to formulate your nursing diagnoses in this guide:  Nursing Diagnosis (NDx): Complete Guide and List .

Setting priorities involves establishing a preferential sequence for addressing nursing diagnoses and interventions. In this step, the nurse and the client begin planning which of the identified problems requires attention first. Diagnoses can be ranked and grouped as having a high, medium, or low priority. Life-threatening problems should be given high priority.

A nursing diagnosis encompasses Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and helps to prioritize and plan care based on patient-centered outcomes. In 1943, Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy based on basic fundamental needs innate to all individuals. Basic physiological needs/goals must be met before higher needs/goals can be achieved, such as self-esteem and self-actualization. Physiological and safety needs are the basis for implementing nursing care and interventions. Thus, they are at the base of Maslow’s pyramid, laying the foundation for physical and emotional health.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Basic Physiological Needs: Nutrition (water and food), elimination (Toileting), airway (suction)-breathing (oxygen)-circulation (pulse, cardiac monitor, blood pressure ) (ABCs), sleep , sex, shelter, and exercise.
• Safety and Security: Injury prevention ( side rails , call lights, hand hygiene , isolation , suicide precautions, fall precautions, car seats, helmets, seat belts), fostering a climate of trust and safety ( therapeutic relationship ), patient education (modifiable risk factors for stroke , heart disease).
• Love and Belonging: Foster supportive relationships, methods to avoid social isolation ( bullying ), employ active listening techniques, therapeutic communication , and sexual intimacy.
• Self-Esteem: Acceptance in the community, workforce, personal achievement, sense of control or empowerment, accepting one’s physical appearance or body habitus.
• Self-Actualization: Empowering environment, spiritual growth, ability to recognize the point of view of others, reaching one’s maximum potential.

The client’s health values and beliefs, priorities, resources available, and urgency are factors the nurse must consider when assigning priorities. Involve the client in the process to enhance cooperation.

Step 5: Establishing Client Goals and Desired Outcomes

After assigning priorities for your nursing diagnosis, the nurse and the client set goals for each determined priority. Goals or desired outcomes describe what the nurse hopes to achieve by implementing the nursing interventions derived from the client’s nursing diagnoses. Goals provide direction for planning interventions, serve as criteria for evaluating client progress, enable the client and nurse to determine which problems have been resolved, and help motivate the client and nurse by providing a sense of achievement.

One overall goal is determined for each nursing diagnosis. The terms “ goal outcomes “ and “expected outcome s” are often used interchangeably.

According to Hamilton and Price (2013), goals should be SMART . SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-oriented goals.

• Specific. It should be clear, significant, and sensible for a goal to be effective.
• Measurable or Meaningful. Making sure a goal is measurable makes it easier to monitor progress and know when it reaches the desired result.
• Attainable or Action-Oriented. Goals should be flexible but remain possible.
• Realistic or Results-Oriented. This is important to look forward to effective and successful outcomes by keeping in mind the available resources at hand.
• Timely or Time-Oriented. Every goal needs a designated time parameter, a deadline to focus on, and something to work toward.

Hogston (2011) suggests using the REEPIG standards to ensure that care is of the highest standards. By this means, nursing care plans should be:

• Realistic. Given available resources. 
• Explicitly stated. Be clear about precisely what must be done, so there is no room for misinterpretation of instructions.
• Evidence-based. That there is research that supports what is being proposed. 
• Prioritized. The most urgent problems are being dealt with first. 
• Involve. Involve both the patient and other members of the multidisciplinary team who are going to be involved in implementing the care.
• Goal-centered. That the care planned will meet and achieve the goal set.

Goals and expected outcomes must be measurable and client-centered.  Goals are constructed by focusing on problem prevention, resolution, and rehabilitation. Goals can be short-term or long-term . Most goals are short-term in an acute care setting since much of the nurse’s time is spent on the client’s immediate needs. Long-term goals are often used for clients who have chronic health problems or live at home, in nursing homes, or in extended-care facilities.

• Short-term goal . A statement distinguishing a shift in behavior that can be completed immediately, usually within a few hours or days.
• Long-term goal . Indicates an objective to be completed over a longer period, usually weeks or months.
• Discharge planning . Involves naming long-term goals, therefore promoting continued restorative care and problem resolution through home health, physical therapy, or various other referral sources.

Goals or desired outcome statements usually have four components: a subject, a verb, conditions or modifiers, and a criterion of desired performance.

• Subject. The subject is the client, any part of the client, or some attribute of the client (i.e., pulse, temperature, urinary output). That subject is often omitted in writing goals because it is assumed that the subject is the client unless indicated otherwise (family, significant other ).
• Verb. The verb specifies an action the client is to perform, for example, what the client is to do, learn, or experience.
• Conditions or modifiers. These are the “what, when, where, or how” that are added to the verb to explain the circumstances under which the behavior is to be performed.
• Criterion of desired performance. The criterion indicates the standard by which a performance is evaluated or the level at which the client will perform the specified behavior. These are optional.

When writing goals and desired outcomes, the nurse should follow these tips:

• Write goals and outcomes in terms of client responses and not as activities of the nurse. Begin each goal with “Client will […]” help focus the goal on client behavior and responses.
• Avoid writing goals on what the nurse hopes to accomplish, and focus on what the client will do.
• Use observable, measurable terms for outcomes. Avoid using vague words that require interpretation or judgment of the observer.
• Desired outcomes should be realistic for the client’s resources, capabilities, limitations, and on the designated time span of care.
• Ensure that goals are compatible with the therapies of other professionals.
• Ensure that each goal is derived from only one nursing diagnosis. Keeping it this way facilitates evaluation of care by ensuring that planned nursing interventions are clearly related to the diagnosis set.
• Lastly, make sure that the client considers the goals important and values them to ensure cooperation.

Step 6: Selecting Nursing Interventions

Nursing interventions are activities or actions that a nurse performs to achieve client goals. Interventions chosen should focus on eliminating or reducing the etiology of the priority nursing problem or diagnosis. As for risk nursing problems, interventions should focus on reducing the client’s risk factors. In this step, nursing interventions are identified and written during the planning step of the nursing process ; however, they are actually performed during the implementation step.

Nursing interventions can be independent, dependent, or collaborative:

• Independent nursing interventions are activities that nurses are licensed to initiate based on their sound judgement and skills. Includes: ongoing assessment, emotional support, providing comfort , teaching, physical care, and making referrals to other health care professionals.
• Dependent nursing interventions are activities carried out under the physician’s orders or supervision. Includes orders to direct the nurse to provide medications, intravenous therapy , diagnostic tests, treatments, diet, and activity or rest. Assessment and providing explanation while administering medical orders are also part of the dependent nursing interventions.
• Collaborative interventions are actions that the nurse carries out in collaboration with other health team members, such as physicians, social workers, dietitians, and therapists. These actions are developed in consultation with other health care professionals to gain their professional viewpoint.

Nursing interventions should be:

• Safe and appropriate for the client’s age, health, and condition.
• Achievable with the resources and time available.
• Inline with the client’s values, culture, and beliefs.
• Inline with other therapies.
• Based on nursing knowledge and experience or knowledge from relevant sciences.

When writing nursing interventions, follow these tips:

• Write the date and sign the plan. The date the plan is written is essential for evaluation, review, and future planning. The nurse’s signature demonstrates accountability.
• Nursing interventions should be specific and clearly stated, beginning with an action verb indicating what the nurse is expected to do. Action verb starts the intervention and must be precise. Qualifiers of how, when, where, time, frequency, and amount provide the content of the planned activity. For example: “ Educate parents on how to take temperature and notify of any changes,” or “ Assess urine for color, amount, odor, and turbidity.”
• Use only abbreviations accepted by the institution.

Rationales, also known as scientific explanations, explain why the nursing intervention was chosen for the NCP.

Rationales do not appear in regular care plans. They are included to assist nursing students in associating the pathophysiological and psychological principles with the selected nursing intervention.

Evaluation is a planned, ongoing, purposeful activity in which the client’s progress towards achieving goals or desired outcomes is assessed, and the effectiveness of the nursing care plan (NCP). Evaluation is an essential aspect of the nursing process because the conclusions drawn from this step determine whether the nursing intervention should be terminated, continued, or changed.

The client’s care plan is documented according to hospital policy and becomes part of the client’s permanent medical record, which may be reviewed by the oncoming nurse. Different nursing programs have different care plan formats. Most are designed so that the student systematically proceeds through the interrelated steps of the nursing process , and many use a five-column format.

Nursing Care Plan List

This section lists the sample nursing care plans (NCP) and nursing diagnoses for various diseases and health conditions. They are segmented into categories:

Miscellaneous nursing care plans examples that don’t fit other categories:

Care plans that involve surgical intervention .

Nursing care plans about the different diseases of the cardiovascular system :

Nursing care plans (NCP) related to the endocrine system and metabolism:

Care plans (NCP) covering the disorders of the gastrointestinal and digestive system :

Care plans related to the hematologic and lymphatic system:

NCPs for communicable and infectious diseases:

All about disorders and conditions affecting the integumentary system:

Nursing care plans about the care of the pregnant mother and her infant. See care plans for maternity and obstetric nursing:

Care plans for mental health and psychiatric nursing:

Care plans related to the musculoskeletal system:

Nursing care plans (NCP) for related to nervous system disorders:

Care plans relating to eye disorders:

Nursing care plans (NCP) for pediatric conditions and diseases:

Care plans related to the reproductive and sexual function disorders:

Care plans for respiratory system disorders:

Care plans related to the kidney and urinary system disorders:

Recommended nursing diagnosis and nursing care plan books and resources.

Disclosure: Included below are affiliate links from Amazon at no additional cost from you. We may earn a small commission from your purchase. For more information, check out our privacy policy .

Ackley and Ladwig’s Nursing Diagnosis Handbook: An Evidence-Based Guide to Planning Care We love this book because of its evidence-based approach to nursing interventions. This care plan handbook uses an easy, three-step system to guide you through client assessment, nursing diagnosis, and care planning. Includes step-by-step instructions showing how to implement care and evaluate outcomes, and help you build skills in diagnostic reasoning and critical thinking.

Nursing Care Plans – Nursing Diagnosis & Intervention (10th Edition) Includes over two hundred care plans that reflect the most recent evidence-based guidelines. New to this edition are ICNP diagnoses, care plans on LGBTQ health issues, and on electrolytes and acid-base balance.

Nurse’s Pocket Guide: Diagnoses, Prioritized Interventions, and Rationales Quick-reference tool includes all you need to identify the correct diagnoses for efficient patient care planning. The sixteenth edition includes the most recent nursing diagnoses and interventions and an alphabetized listing of nursing diagnoses covering more than 400 disorders.

Nursing Diagnosis Manual: Planning, Individualizing, and Documenting Client Care  Identify interventions to plan, individualize, and document care for more than 800 diseases and disorders. Only in the Nursing Diagnosis Manual will you find for each diagnosis subjectively and objectively – sample clinical applications, prioritized action/interventions with rationales – a documentation section, and much more!

All-in-One Nursing Care Planning Resource – E-Book: Medical-Surgical, Pediatric, Maternity, and Psychiatric-Mental Health   Includes over 100 care plans for medical-surgical, maternity/OB, pediatrics, and psychiatric and mental health. Interprofessional “patient problems” focus familiarizes you with how to speak to patients.

Recommended reading materials and sources for this NCP guide: 

• Björvell, C., Thorell-Ekstrand, I., & Wredling, R. (2000). Development of an audit instrument for nursing care plans in the patient record.   BMJ Quality & Safety ,  9 (1), 6-13. [ Link ]
• DeLaune, S. C., & Ladner, P. K. (2011).  Fundamentals of nursing: Standards and practice . Cengage learning .
• Freitas, F. A., & Leonard, L. J. (2011). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and student academic success .  Teaching and learning in Nursing ,  6 (1), 9-13.
• Hamilton, P., & Price, T. (2007). The nursing process, holistic.  Foundations of Nursing Practice E-Book: Fundamentals of Holistic Care , 349.
• Lee, T. T. (2004). Evaluation of computerized nursing care plan: instrument development .  Journal of Professional Nursing ,  20 (4), 230-238.
• Lee, T. T. (2006). Nurses’ perceptions of their documentation experiences in a computerized nursing care planning system .  Journal of Clinical Nursing ,  15 (11), 1376-1382.
• Rn , B. O. C., Rn, H. M., Rn, D. T., & Rn, F. E. (2000). Documenting and communicating patient care : Are nursing care plans redundant?.  International Journal of Nursing Practice ,  6 (5), 276-280.
• Stonehouse, D. (2017). Understanding the nursing process .  British Journal of Healthcare Assistants ,  11 (8), 388-391.
• Yildirim, B., & Ozkahraman, S. (2011). Critical thinking in nursing process and education .  International journal of humanities and social science ,  1 (13), 257-262.

66 thoughts on “Nursing Care Plans (NCP) Ultimate Guide and List”

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Risk for ineffective thermoregulation would be a good one for you to do next for newborn.

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What is a nursing care plan a mother in second stage of labour?

Please see: 36 Labor Stages, Induced and Augmented Labor Nursing Care Plans

What is the nursing care plan for pulmonary oedema?

I m interest in receiving a blank nursing care plan template for my students to type on. I was wondering if it was available and if so can you please direct me on where to find it?

Hi! You can download it here: Nursing Care Plan Template

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Hi Matt! I would like to purchase a textbook of your nursing care plan. Where I can purchase pls help!

Hi Criselda,

Sorry, we don’t have a textbook. All of our resources are here on the website and free to use.

Good day, I would like to know how can I use your website to help students with care plans.

Sincerely, Oscar A. Acosta DNP, RN

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These care plans are great for using as a template. I don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and the information you provided will ensure that I include the important data without leaving things out. Thanks a million!

Hi, I have learnt a lot, this is a wonderful note you’ve prepared for all nurses thank you.

Matt, this page is very informative and I especially appreciate seeing care plans for patients with neurological disorders. I notice, though, that traumatic brain injury is not on your list. Might you add a care plan page for this?

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Hi, is there a downloadable version of this, pdf or other files maybe this is awesome!

Hi Paul, on your browser go to File > Print > Save as PDF. Hope that helps and thanks for visiting Nurseslabs!

Matt, I’m a nursing instructor looking for tools to teach this. I am interested in where we can find “rules” for establishing “related to” sections…for example –not able to utilize medical diagnosis as a “related to” etc. Also, resources for nursing rationale.

Hello, please check out our guide on how to write nursing diagnoses here: https://nurseslabs.com/nursing-diagnosis/

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Hello Ujunwa, Thanks a lot for the positive vibes! 🌟 It’s super important to us that everyone has access to quality resources. Just wondering, is there any specific topic or area you’d love to see more about? We’re always looking to improve and add value!

Great work.

Hi Abbas, Thank you so much! Really glad to hear you found the nursing care plans guide useful. If there’s a specific area or topic you’re keen on exploring more, or if you have any suggestions for improvement, feel free to share. Always aiming to make our resources as helpful as possible!

It has been good time me to use these nursing guides.

What is ncp for acute pain

For everything you need to know about managing acute pain, including a detailed nursing care plan (NCP), definitely check out our acute pain nursing care plan guide . It’s packed with insights on assessment, interventions, and patient education to effectively manage and alleviate acute pain.

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what is working knowledge on nursing standard, and Basic Life Support documentation?

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How to Write a Nursing Essay with a Quick Guide

Ever felt the blank-page panic when assigned a nursing essay? Wondering where to start or if your words will measure up to the weight of your experiences? Fear not, because today, we're here to guide you through this process.

Imagine you're at your favorite coffee spot, armed with a cup of motivation (and maybe a sneaky treat). Got it? Great! Now, let's spill the secrets on how to spin your nursing tales into words that not only get you that A+ but also tug at the heartstrings of anyone reading. We've got your back with nursing essay examples that'll be your inspiration, an outline to keep you on the right path, and more!

What Is a Nursing Essay

Let's start by dissecting the concept. A nursing essay serves as a focused exploration of a specific aspect of nursing, providing an opportunity for students to demonstrate their theoretical knowledge and its practical application in patient care settings.

Picture it as a journey through the challenges and victories of a budding nurse. These essays go beyond the classroom, tackling everything from tricky ethical dilemmas to the impact of healthcare policies on the front lines. It's not just about grades; it's about proving, 'I'm ready for the real deal.'

So, when you read or write a nursing essay, it's not just words on paper. It's like looking into the world of someone who's about to start their nursing career – someone who's really thought about the ins and outs of being a nurse. And before you kick off your nursing career, don't shy away from asking - write my essay for me - we're ready to land a professional helping hand.

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When you start writing a nursing essay, it is like gearing up for a crucial mission. Here's your quick guide from our nursing essay writing service :

Choosing Your Topic: Select a topic that sparks your interest and relates to real-world nursing challenges. Consider areas like patient care, ethical dilemmas, or the impact of technology on healthcare.

Outline Your Route : Plan your essay's journey. Create a roadmap with key points you want to cover. This keeps you on track and your essay on point.

Craft a Strong Thesis: Assuming you already know how to write a hook , kick off your writing with a surprising fact, a thought-provoking quote, or a brief anecdote. Then, state your main argument or perspective in one sentence. This thesis will serve as the compass for your essay, guiding both you and your reader through the rest of your writing.

How to Structure a Nursing Essay

Every great essay is like a well-orchestrated performance – it needs a script, a narrative that flows seamlessly, capturing the audience's attention from start to finish. In our case, this script takes the form of a well-organized structure. Let's delve into the elements that teach you how to write a nursing essay, from a mere collection of words to a compelling journey of insights.

Nursing Essay Introduction

Begin your nursing essay with a spark. Knowing how to write essay introduction effectively means sharing a real-life scenario or a striking fact related to your topic. For instance, if exploring patient care, narrate a personal experience that made a lasting impression. Then, crisply state your thesis – a clear roadmap indicating the direction your essay will take. Think of it as a teaser that leaves the reader eager to explore the insights you're about to unfold.

In the main body, dive into the heart of your essay. Each paragraph should explore a specific aspect of your topic. Back your thoughts with examples – maybe a scenario from your clinical experience, a relevant case study, or findings from credible sources. Imagine it as a puzzle coming together; each paragraph adds a piece, forming a complete picture. Keep it focused and let each idea flow naturally into the next.

Nursing Essay Conclusion

As writing a nursing essay nears the end, resist the urge to introduce new elements. Summarize your main points concisely. Remind the reader of the real-world significance of your thesis – why it matters in the broader context of nursing. Conclude with a thought-provoking statement or a call to reflection, leaving your reader with a lasting impression. It's like the final scene of a movie that leaves you thinking long after the credits roll.

Nursing Essay Outline

Before diving into the essay, craft a roadmap – your outline. This isn't a rigid skeleton but a flexible guide that ensures your ideas flow logically. Consider the following template from our research paper writing service :

Introduction

• Opening Hook: Share a brief, impactful patient care scenario.
• Relevance Statement: Explain why the chosen topic is crucial in nursing.
• Thesis: Clearly state the main argument or perspective.

Patient-Centered Care:

• Definition: Clarify what patient-centered care means in nursing.
• Personal Experience: Share a relevant encounter from clinical practice.
• Evidence: Integrate findings from reputable nursing literature.

Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing Practice

• Scenario Presentation: Describe a specific ethical challenge faced by nurses.
• Decision-Making Process: Outline steps taken to address the dilemma.
• Ethical Frameworks: Discuss any ethical theories guiding the decision.

Impact of Technology on Nursing

• Current Trends: Highlight technological advancements in nursing.
• Case Study: Share an example of technology enhancing patient care.
• Challenges and Benefits: Discuss the pros and cons of technology in nursing.
• Summary of Key Points: Recap the main ideas from each section.
• Real-world Implications: Emphasize the practical significance in nursing practice.
• Closing Thought: End with a reflective statement or call to action.

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Nursing Essay Examples

Here are the nursing Essay Examples for you to read.

Writing a Nursing Essay: Essential Tips

When it comes to crafting a stellar nursing essay, a few key strategies can elevate your work from ordinary to exceptional. Here are some valuable tips from our medical school personal statement writer :

Connect with Personal Experiences:

• Approach: Weave personal encounters seamlessly into your narrative.
• Reasoning: This not only adds authenticity to your essay but also serves as a powerful testament to your firsthand understanding of the challenges and triumphs in the nursing field.

Emphasize Critical Thinking:

• Approach: Go beyond describing situations; delve into their analysis.
• Reasoning: Nursing essays are the perfect platform to showcase your critical thinking skills – an essential attribute in making informed decisions in real-world healthcare scenarios.

Incorporate Patient Perspectives:

• Approach: Integrate patient stories or feedback into your discussion.
• Reasoning: By bringing in the human element, you demonstrate empathy and an understanding of the patient's experience, a core aspect of nursing care.

Integrate Evidence-Based Practice:

• Approach: Support your arguments with the latest evidence-based literature.
• Reasoning: Highlighting your commitment to staying informed and applying current research underscores your dedication to evidence-based practice – a cornerstone in modern nursing.

Address Ethical Considerations:

• Approach: Explicitly discuss the ethical dimensions of your topic.
• Reasoning: Nursing essays provide a platform to delve into the ethical complexities inherent in healthcare, showcasing your ability to navigate and analyze these challenges.

Balance Theory and Practice:

• Approach: Connect theoretical concepts to real-world applications.
• Reasoning: By bridging the gap between theory and practice, you illustrate your capacity to apply academic knowledge effectively in the dynamic realm of nursing.

Highlight Interdisciplinary Collaboration:

• Approach: Discuss collaborative efforts with other healthcare professionals.
• Reasoning: Acknowledging the interdisciplinary nature of healthcare underscores your understanding of the importance of teamwork – a vital aspect of successful nursing practice.

Reflect on Lessons Learned:

• Approach: Conclude with a thoughtful reflection on personal growth or lessons from your exploration.
• Reasoning: This not only provides a satisfying conclusion but also demonstrates your self-awareness and commitment to continuous improvement as a nursing professional.

As we wrap up, think of your essay as a story about your journey into nursing. It's not just about getting a grade; it's a way to share what you've been through and why you want to be a nurse.

Imagine the person reading it – maybe a teacher, a future coworker, or someone starting their nursing journey. They're trying to understand your passion and why you care about nursing.

So, when you write, remember it's more than just an assignment. It's your chance to show why nursing matters to you. And if you ever need help – there's always support from our essay writer online .

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How to Write a Nursing Essay?

How can a nursing essay effectively address ethical considerations, what are some examples of evidence-based practices in nursing essays.

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is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

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128 Nursing Care Plan Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Nursing care plans are essential tools that nurses use to outline the care that will be provided to patients. These plans help ensure that patients receive the best possible care and that all aspects of their health and well-being are taken into consideration. Developing a nursing care plan can be challenging, especially when trying to come up with unique and relevant topics for each patient. To help you with this process, we have compiled a list of 128 nursing care plan essay topic ideas and examples.

• Diabetes management in elderly patients
• Pain management in post-operative patients
• Fall prevention in older adults
• Nutrition and hydration in critically ill patients
• Pressure ulcer prevention in bedridden patients
• Medication management in patients with multiple chronic conditions
• Wound care in patients with diabetes
• Infection control in hospitalized patients
• Respiratory care in patients with COPD
• Mental health support in patients with depression
• Palliative care for terminally ill patients
• Rehabilitation for stroke patients
• Bowel and bladder management in patients with spinal cord injuries
• Skin care for patients with dermatological conditions
• Mobility assistance for patients with physical disabilities
• Cognitive stimulation for patients with dementia
• Sleep hygiene in patients with insomnia
• Stress management in patients with anxiety disorders
• Substance abuse treatment in patients with addiction
• Family support in pediatric patients
• End-of-life care for hospice patients
• Postpartum care for new mothers
• Nutrition counseling in patients with eating disorders
• Exercise therapy in patients with cardiovascular disease
• Self-care management in patients with chronic pain
• Social support for patients with social isolation
• Communication skills training for patients with speech disorders
• Medication adherence in patients with mental health disorders
• Immunization education for parents of newborns
• Safety precautions for patients with seizure disorders
• Mobility training for patients with amputations
• Cognitive behavioral therapy for patients with PTSD
• Palliative care for patients with end-stage cancer
• Nutrition education for patients with obesity
• Pain management in patients with sickle cell anemia
• Skin care for patients with burns
• Respiratory therapy for patients with asthma
• Medication management in patients with HIV/AIDS
• Infection control in patients with MRSA
• Wound care for patients with pressure ulcers
• Fall prevention in patients with Parkinson's disease
• Mental health support for patients with schizophrenia
• Rehabilitation for patients with traumatic brain injuries
• Bowel and bladder management for patients with urinary incontinence
• Skin care for patients with eczema
• Mobility assistance for patients with arthritis
• Cognitive stimulation for patients with Alzheimer's disease
• Sleep hygiene in patients with sleep apnea
• Stress management for patients with chronic stress
• Substance abuse treatment for patients with substance use disorders
• Family support for patients with family conflicts
• End-of-life care for patients with terminal illnesses
• Postpartum care for mothers with postpartum depression
• Nutrition counseling for patients with malnutrition
• Exercise therapy for patients with musculoskeletal disorders
• Self-care management for patients with chronic illnesses
• Social support for patients with social anxiety
• Communication skills training for patients with communication disorders
• Medication adherence in patients with medication non-adherence
• Immunization education for patients with vaccine hesitancy
• Safety precautions for patients with safety concerns
• Mobility training for patients with mobility impairments
• Cognitive behavioral therapy for patients with behavioral disorders
• Palliative care for patients with terminal conditions
• Nutrition education for patients with malnutrition
• Pain management for patients with chronic pain
• Skin care for patients with skin conditions
• Respiratory therapy for patients with respiratory conditions
• Medication management for patients with medication management issues
• Infection control for patients with infectious diseases
• Wound care for patients with wounds
• Fall prevention for patients at risk of falls
• Mental health support for patients with mental health issues
• Rehabilitation for patients recovering from surgeries
• Bowel and bladder management for patients with bowel and bladder issues
• Mobility assistance for patients who have mobility issues
• Cognitive stimulation for patients who need cognitive stimulation
• Sleep hygiene for patients with sleep disorders
• Stress management for patients who need stress relief
• Substance abuse treatment for patients with substance abuse issues
• Family support for patients who need family support
• End-of-life care for patients who are at the end of their lives
• Postpartum care for mothers who have just given birth
• Nutrition counseling for patients who need nutrition counseling
• Exercise therapy for patients who need exercise therapy
• Self-care management for patients who need self-care management
• Social support for patients who need social support
• Communication skills training for patients who need communication skills training
• Medication adherence for patients who need help with medication adherence
• Immunization education for patients who need immunization education
• Safety precautions for patients who need safety precautions
• Mobility training for patients who need mobility training
• Cognitive behavioral therapy for patients who need cognitive behavioral therapy
• Palliative care for patients who need palliative care
• Nutrition education for patients who need nutrition education
• Pain management for patients who need pain management
• Skin care for patients who need skin care
• Respiratory therapy for patients who need respiratory therapy
• Medication management for patients who need medication management
• Infection control for patients who need infection control
• Wound care for patients who need wound care
• Fall prevention for patients who need fall prevention
• Mental health support for patients who need mental health support
• Rehabilitation for patients who need rehabilitation
• Bowel and bladder management for patients who need bowel and bladder management
• Mobility assistance for patients who need mobility assistance
• Sleep hygiene for patients who need sleep hygiene
• Stress management for patients who need stress management
• Substance abuse treatment for patients who need substance abuse treatment
• End-of-life care for patients who need end-of-life care
• Postpartum care for patients who need postpartum care
• Medication adherence for patients who need medication adherence

These essay topic ideas and examples can serve as a starting point for developing nursing care plans for your patients. Remember to consider the individual needs and preferences of each patient when creating their care plan, and always involve them in the decision-making process. By addressing all aspects of a patient's health and well-being, you can provide the best possible care and help them achieve optimal outcomes.

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Health Care — Nursing Care Plan

Nursing Care Plan Essays

Nursing care plan essay topics and outline examples, essay title 1: nursing care plans: enhancing patient-centered care and clinical outcomes.

Thesis Statement: This essay explores the pivotal role of nursing care plans in delivering patient-centered care, improving healthcare outcomes, and ensuring effective communication and coordination among healthcare teams.

• Introduction
• Understanding Nursing Care Plans: Purpose and Components
• Patient Assessment and Individualized Care Planning
• The Impact on Patient Outcomes: Quality of Care, Safety, and Satisfaction
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Communication in Care Planning

Essay Title 2: Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing Care Plans: Integrating Research into Clinical Decision-Making

Thesis Statement: This essay examines the importance of evidence-based practice in nursing care planning, highlighting how research findings inform clinical decision-making, improve patient care, and drive innovation in nursing practice.

• Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing: Principles and Significance
• Translating Research into Care Plans: The Role of Nursing Research
• Improving Patient Outcomes: Case Studies in Evidence-Based Care Planning
• Challenges and Strategies for Promoting Evidence-Based Nursing Care

Essay Title 3: Nursing Care Plans in the Age of Technology: Leveraging EHRs and Digital Tools

Thesis Statement: This essay explores how electronic health records (EHRs) and digital tools are transforming nursing care planning, enhancing documentation, and supporting healthcare professionals in delivering efficient and patient-centric care.

• Electronic Health Records (EHRs): Features and Benefits in Nursing Care Planning
• Integration of Digital Tools: Decision Support Systems, Telehealth, and Mobile Apps
• Data Security and Privacy Concerns in Nursing Informatics
• Future Trends and Innovations in Nursing Care Planning Technology

C228: Empowering Community Health Nursing

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Communication as an Aspect of Mental Health Nursing Care

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How to Write a Care Plan for Nursing

What is a care plan for nursing .

A care plan for nursing, also referred to as a nursing care plan can be defined as:

A formal process that encompasses correct identification of existing nursing patient needs and recognition of potential needs of nursing patient risks.

Note that care plans are used as communication tools between nurses, patients under care, and relevant healthcare providers to help realize consistency and quality in health care outcomes.

The process of writing a nursing care plan is as explored hereunder.

• What is a Care Plan for Nursing?

Writing a Nursing Care Plan

Categories of care plans for nursing, objectives of a care plan for nursing, 1. assessment, 2. diagnosis, 3. care plan goals, 4. interventions, 5. outcomes, 6. evaluation, format of a care plan for nursing, step 1: data collection, step 2: data analysis, step 3: nursing diagnoses formulation, step 4: establishment of priorities, step 5: goals and outcomes determination.

Skills on how to write a care plan for nursing requires knowledge on the diagnosis process.

Per se, developing NANDA nursing care plans demands that you utilize nursing diagnosis to determine the suitable plan of care for a particular patient.

In this case, a nursing care plan is:

• A written record of an action plan developed with a patient to meet their social and health needs.
• A plan that outlines who is doing what, at what time (when), and for what reasons (why)-It provides aims, actions, and responsibilities.
• A tool supporting patient and health provider safety.
• A plan that can be relied on and easily understood by care providers, family members, and other relevant parties during crisis.
• A plan founded on comprehensive assessment of needs.
• A plan produced in consultation and shared with all the involved parties.
• Part of a support process for planning systems like Care Program Approach, Care and Treatment Planning, Long Term Conditions Planning, etc.

When it comes to how to write a care plan for nursing, it is important to understand the available options. Nursing care plans can be grouped into 4 major categories, including:

• Informal care plan for nursing
• Formal care plan for nursing
• Standardized care plans
• Individualized care plans

NANDA nursing care plans should be guided by specific objectives. Such objectives may encompass:

• Supporting holistic care, including psychological, physical, spiritual, and social elements of individual health.
• Promoting evidence-based nursing care.
• Establishing care programs like care bundles and care pathways.
• Enhancing good and familiar conditions within health care establishments.
• Reviewing documentation and communication of a care plan.
• Assessing nursing care.

Components of a Care Plan for Nursing

Effective skills on how to write a care plan for nursing involves a good understanding of the different components of care plans.

As illustrated in NANDA nursing care plan examples, all care plans constitute different components. These components indicate the various areas the care plan should focus on. They include:

This entails respective diagnostic reports and medical results. Assessment is a primary component in the design of a care plan.

It should entail all facets of a patient’s well-being, including physical, cognitive, psychological, emotional, spiritual, cultural, sexual, environmental, and economic factors.

This involves a summary of the current health status of the patient as is derived from the patient’s response to a particular health condition.

As illustrated in various nursing care plan examples, it also defines what the nurse can contribute in care provision.

When it comes to how to write a care plan for nursing, care plan goals encompass clear, concise, and realistic description of the intervention’s desired outcomes.

They could be long-term or short-term. Importantly, they should be measurable.

These entail all the treatment done to help realize the set goals or desired outcomes.

These involve the expectations on the patient. It is how the patient is supposed to react to the intervention.

The outcome should be realistic and measurable.

This entails periodical review of the patient’s goals and outcomes.

It should compare actual outcomes with predicted ones, review interventions, and where need be, modify the care plan.

Just like in the case of nursing essays and research papers , writing a care plan for nursing should be evidence based.

That said, format is very important when it comes to how to write a care plan for nursing. Note that the format could vary depending on whether you are a practicing nurse or a nurse student.

In both cases, you have to adhere to the respective standards for NANDA nursing care plans.

Note that for the practicing nurse however, you may not be required to include components like assessment, rationale, and evaluation.[nbsp][nbsp]

In line with common nursing care plan examples, the care plan format for nursing students could be as illustrated below.

Nursing Care Plan for a Nurse Student [nbsp]

Note that although you can use the above nursing care plan template for most student assignments, the nursing care plan requirements may however change from one institution to another.

Also, for professional practice, care plans could be different as well. Such care plans usually omit 2 or 3 areas from the student care plan.

As illustrated in standard NANDA nursing care plan examples, some of the most commonly omitted areas include assessment and rationale.[nbsp] [nbsp][nbsp]

A nursing care plan template for professional nurse could be as illustrated below.

Nurselabs: 4-Column Nursing Care Plan[nbsp]

Steps on How to Write a Care Plan for Nursing

The process of writing nursing care plans is quite simple. Note that despite the slight difference evident in various nursing care plan examples, the entailed steps are usually common.

Per se, the writing process is defined by the below steps.

This entails the first step of the nursing care plan writing process. In this step, you are required to create a patient database using data acquired through appropriate patient assessment techniques as well as data collection methods.

Such techniques and methods may include diagnostic studies, interviews, health history review, physical assessment, and review of medical records. The database should include all information that is possible to acquire.

During the assessment, it is important to go ahead and isolate the entailed risk factors, as well as define the different characteristics key to nursing diagnosis formulation.

This is a very instrumental step when it comes to how to write a nursing diagnosis. It entails analyzing, clustering, and organizing acquired patient data in order to come up with the right nursing diagnosis, nursing priorities, and preferred outcomes.

It is important to ensure that all information is considered in the analysis. In this, the analysis should examine the areas the patient is experiencing health problem in.

While analyzing the data, it is critical to think about ways in which the patient can improve. Also think of ways to evaluate the improvements.

During the process, the nurse should note down general issues entailed in the patient’s problem.

In this step, it is advisable to observe the guidelines provided for NANDA nursing diagnoses. These guidelines provide for a uniform method for ascertaining, paying attention to, and handling client needs.

These guidelines extend from patient responses to actual/definite and high risk problems.[nbsp][nbsp]

In this case, nursing diagnoses entail actual or prospective health problems that are preventable or resolvable using independent nursing intervention.

Accordingly, this requires knowledge on how to develop nursing diagnoses.[nbsp] [nbsp]

This is equally a very important step when it comes to how to write a nursing diagnosis. As illustrated in NANDA nursing care plan examples, establishing priorities entails coming up with a sequence of activities on how to handle diagnoses and interventions.

This step requires the nurse together with patient to deliberate and agree on the nursing diagnoses that should be attended to first. Here in, prioritization demands the ranking of diagnoses either as high, medium, or low.

Priorities should be accorded life-threatening problems, where they should be ranked as high.

Some of the factors to consider when developing the priorities include patient’s beliefs and values, urgency of the problem, patient’s priorities, and available resources.

As illustrated in different nursing care plan examples, this is usually the last step when writing a nursing care plan.

The nurse in collaboration with the patient should come up with goals for all the established priorities.

These goals entail the desired outcomes and should elaborate what the nurse seeks to achieve through the implementation of nursing interventions that have been derived from the respective nursing diagnoses.

Such goals are usually the direction for planning interventions. They provide the criteria for patient progress evaluation. As such, they should be used by the nurse working together with the patient to establish the problem that require solving.

The goals and outcomes should also be used as a source of motivation for the nurse and the client since they can help indicate achievements.[nbsp] [nbsp][nbsp]

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Essay Samples on Nursing Care Plan

The art of caring in nursing and its impact on patients.

Nursing is often described as both a science and an art. While the scientific aspect involves medical knowledge and technical skills, the heart of nursing lies in the art of caring. The art of caring goes beyond the application of treatments and medications; it encompasses...

• Nursing Care Plan

What Nursing Means To Me

One of my mentors with regards to nursing who regarded nursing as unique profession aimed at helping individuals—well or unwell—undertake in activities of daily living contributing to health or its recovery (or peaceful death) that the individual will have would have accomplished on their own...

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Being A Professional Nurse: Ethics, Law, And Competence

What is a proffesional nurse? This essay will try to answer on this question and discuss various components related to the work of a professional nurse. Such as knowledge of biopsychosocial health conditions and the impact on everyone involved in the case study of 82-year-old...

Nursing Care Plan and Nurses’ Philosophy Influence

This essay aims at critically exploring the philosophies, models, and frameworks that underpin care planning. This will be demonstrated through use of a service user case scenario with a long-term complex care need. The essay begins with an overview of the identified service user and...

The Filters for Prehospital Care of Paramedic

Paramedics are median wellbeing in health science and to maintain the disease. As Everyone depends on quick reactions and quick responses to their work. Every day there are inventions on paramedics to improve this system and develop some serves which have benefits for people. It...

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Nursing Philosophy: The Values And Beliefs Of The Profession

Since I was young, I have always been driven by a caring nature and a desire to help others which has led me to the career choice of nursing. I feel the most accomplished when I serve and help others, and my nursing attitude reflects...

My Nursing Philosophy: The Viewpoint Of Treating Patients

Philosophies are mainly developed from experiences and beliefs. Philosophies give people different meanings to life; they are never the same since we all have our own individual beliefs. Nurses also have their own philosophy. This philosophy is shaped by the nurse’s viewpoint. Philosophies integrate personal...

The Philosophy Of Nursing And Development Of Knowledge In The Profession

Throughout my journey of becoming a nurse, I have started to develop my personal philosophy of what nursing is. My philosophy views nursing as a way of healing others, caring for others, respecting others and treating others the way you would want to be treated....

Nursing Care Plan for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patient

The body of a human being is equipped to protect itself against infections and foreign material recognized in the body. This measure occurs through the production of antibodies against the antigen, which is the recognized external component, eliminating it and attaining active immunity against its...

Critical Errors in the Treatment of Lewis Blackman

Helen Haskell starts off her tragic story by describing her son. The reason she recounts all aspects of her son is because he is why we are in nursing. For all of the world war two veteran grandparents with an ejection fraction of ten percent....

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The Psychological Impacts of Infertility

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Fall Risk: Nursing Strategies to Prevent Falls in the Older Adult

Falls among the older adult population in the United States are a common and serious danger. For many reasons, older adults fall and oftentimes sustain injuries that can set back healing times or in many cases trigger a downward spiral of health complications and injuries....

Managing Conflict In Clinical Practice.

Conflict is unavoidable in nursing environment as nurses need to work with other health workers , care of patients with different personalities, and communicate with patient’s family. Hence, conflict is a significant issue result in stress, turnover and job dissatisfaction. The essay will talk about...

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Delegation In Professional Nursing

Delegation plays an integral role in the nursing profession. In fact, delegating tasks to other appropriate staff members (e. g. patient care techs, LPNS) can be the key component in making sound clinical judgements as a registered nurse; as it also determines the hierarchy of...

Best topics on Nursing Care Plan

1. The Art of Caring in Nursing and Its Impact on Patients

2. What Nursing Means To Me

3. Being A Professional Nurse: Ethics, Law, And Competence

4. Nursing Care Plan and Nurses’ Philosophy Influence

5. The Filters for Prehospital Care of Paramedic

6. Nursing Philosophy: The Values And Beliefs Of The Profession

7. My Nursing Philosophy: The Viewpoint Of Treating Patients

8. The Philosophy Of Nursing And Development Of Knowledge In The Profession

9. Nursing Care Plan for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patient

10. Critical Errors in the Treatment of Lewis Blackman

11. The Psychological Impacts of Infertility

12. Fall Risk: Nursing Strategies to Prevent Falls in the Older Adult

13. Managing Conflict In Clinical Practice.

14. Delegation In Professional Nursing

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How to Write a Nursing Care Plan with Examples for Nursing School

Wilson logan.

• August 17, 2022
• Nursing Writing Guides

Nursing Care Plan Examples, Nursing Interventions Documentation and Guide For Nursing Students

A nursing care plan is a document that outlines the specific needs of an individual who requires nursing care. It is an essential tool in the nursing profession, serving as a comprehensive guide for delivering high-quality, patient-centered care.

These plans are based on the nursing process (assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation) and are structured to incorporate current evidence-based practices and standards of care.

Nursing care plans are often emphasized in nursing education, as writing comprehensive care plans is a critical skill for nursing students to develop.

Student care plans may be more detailed than those used in clinical practice, as they are designed to reinforce the nursing process, promote critical thinking, and enhance decision-making abilities.

It should be created before any care is given to ensure that all needs are met and that the individual receives the best possible care. This article offers examples of nursing care plans and includes an NANDA outline and a guide on developing one. 

Components Of A Nursing Care Plan and Nursing Intervention

Nursing Care Plans have specific components that should be included;

• A diagnosis of the individual’s illness or injury
• A description of the individual’s symptoms and how they impact their daily life
• A description of any treatments or therapies the individual will require
• A plan for home health care, if necessary
• A timetable for when each step in the treatment or rehabilitation process will happen
• A list of any personal belongings that need to be transferred to a designated caregiver or hospice staff
• An inventory of all medications prescribed to the individual and a list of phone numbers for pharmacists, doctors and other healthcare providers
• The name and contact information for a representative from the facility where the individual will receive their nursing care
• A nursing care plan should be updated as new information arises so that it can reflect the individual’s current needs . Caregivers should also keep a copy of the plan on hand in case questions or concerns arise .

Elements Of A Nursing Care Plan

There are many elements that should be included in a nursing care plan, including: (importance of nursing care plan pdf)

• A diagnosis of the individual’s illness or injury(Nursing Care Plan Examples)
• A plan for home health care, if necessary(Nursing Care Plan Examples)

When preparing the nursing care plan, consider the following

• Evaluation of the patient’s wellness, clinical findings, and diagnosis. This is the initial step in developing a care plan.
• Patient evaluation is focused on the essential categories and capabilities in specific: bodily, psychological, interpersonal, psychological, ethnic, religious, intellectual, physiological, age-related, financial , and societal. This data might be both biased and factual.(Nursing Care Plan Examples)
• The expected client results are mentioned. They might be both lengthy and brief.(Nursing Care Plan Examples)
• This care plan includes documentation of treatment plans.(Nursing Care Plan Examples)
• Treatments must have a justification to constitute proof-centred healthcare(Nursing Care Plan Examples).
• Assessment: This is a record of the outcomes of treatment plans . (nursing care examples)

As you continue,   nursingstudy.org has the best-qualified nursing writers to help with any of your nursing essays or assignments. All you need to do is  place an order  with us.

NANDA nursing care plan examples

Nursing care plans are essential for providing the best possible care to patients. They outline what type of nursing care a patient will need , who will provide it, and when it will be provided.(Nursing Care Plan Examples)

There are many different types of nursing care plans, but the most common is the care plan template . This template can be customized to fit the needs of each patient. It includes information such as the patient’s medical history, current condition, expected discharge date, and preferences. The care plan should also include a list of nurses responsible for providing the care, their contact information, and their duties.(Nursing Care Plan Examples)

To create a nursing care plan, you first need to gather information about your patient . This includes their medical history and current condition. You also need to know their discharge date and any preferences they have concerning their care.(Nursing Care Plan Examples)

Once you have this information, you can start creating your nursing care plan template. The template should include a list of all the nurses responsible for providing the patient’s care. Their contact information and their duties should also be included.(Nursing Care Plan Examples)

Once your nursing care plan is complete, you can print it out and bring it with you when you visit your patient. (Nursing Care Plan Examples)

5 Steps of Writing a Good Nursing Care Plan

Nursing care plans do not always follow the same format. In any case, following these 5 steps should give you content that satisfies your professor.

Step 1: Write an assessment section for your care plan.

To make a care plan, an assessment is the first step. You need to answer certain questions on the assessment form such as “Why is the patient here?” Answer this and other questions on your assessment form in order to create a thorough evaluation .

Gathering information is vital to understanding a patient’s pain. In the assessment section of a nursing care plan, you should capture lifestyle information and physiological data about the person, as well as more about their pain.

Step 2: Fill Out the Diagnoses Part of the Care Plan Template

The diagnosis part of a nursing care plan is where you determine the conditions and health problems a patient faces . The diagnoses section provides information about the patient, which nurses use to decide how best to provide care for them.

Step 3: Write the Planning Part of Your Nursing Care Plan

With measurable goals, you and your patient can pursue the right short- and long-term plans of care . For instance, you may decide that the patient should move once from their bed to a chair per day within 24 hours of injury. You can also set other goals such as tolerating clear liquids without nausea within 18 hours and pain relief within three hours. You can even make a contract where within 12 hours your patient should be reporting decreased nausea.

Step 4: Complete the Implementation/Interventions Part

Interventions section focuses on the course of action nurses should take to meet the patient’s needs. A patient’s record provides clinicians with specific actions that need addressing, such as “Nurse will assess patient’s nausea every 6 hours.”

Step 5: Finally, Evaluate the Nursing Care Plan; Decide if the Plan Needs Modification

Nurses must keep evaluating their patients’ health to make sure they are healthy or not. Nurses must also evaluate the effectiveness of their nursing care by considering the goals set for each patient. The evaluation section carefully considers each goal. When a goal is not met, you may have to re-evaluate other steps in taking care of a patient.

Tips for Nursing Care Plan Writing for Nursing Students

When you are a nursing student, planning and preparing for your nursing care is essential. The following tips will help you develop a care plan that meets the needs of your individual patient.

• Understand Your Patient’s Condition and Symptoms The first step in developing a nursing care plan is understanding your patient’s condition and symptoms. Do not hesitate to ask your preceptor or faculty member for additional information when you do not have a solid understanding of the situation.
• Assess the Patient’s Needs Once you have an understanding of your patient’s condition, it is time to assess their needs. This may include taking into account their age, health history, medications they are taking, and any other factors that could affect their care.
• Create a Treatment Plan Based on the Patient’s Needs Once you have assessed the patient’s needs, it is important to create a treatment plan that meets those needs. This may include anything from administering medication to providing physical therapy.
• Follow the Treatment Plan as Appropriate It is important to follow the treatment plan as it is appropriate for your patient . This includes ensuring that all necessary medication is administered, that the necessary equipment is available, and that the patient’s care is monitored regularly.

Adjust the Treatment Plan as Necessary As the situation changes, so may the treatment plan. This includes taking into account any new information you have about the patient’s condition or symptoms.

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Assessing the patient's needs and planning effective care

Benjamin Ajibade

Senior Lecturer, Mental Health Nursing, Northumbria University

View articles · Email Benjamin

Nurses have an essential role to play in the assessment and planning of patient care. This is emphasised in the Nursing and Midwifery Council's 2018Future Nurse proficiency standards. In this article, the author discusses the importance of person-centred care in assessing needs and highlights the need for all nursing interventions to be evidence based. The topics covered include assessing people's needs, care planning, stages of care planning, benefits of care planning, models of care, care pathways, and care clustering in mental health care. The article also highlights the significance of record-keeping.

The central role of nurses in assessing patient needs and planning care is one of the core areas emphasised in Future Nurse, the Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) (2018a) nursing proficiency standards. The document categorises ‘assessing needs and planning care’ as the third of seven areas of proficiency, which are grouped into ‘platforms’. Future Nurse emphasises that the delivery of person-centred care and evidence-based nursing interventions are vital components for effective patient assessment and care planning. The standards further highlight that the nurse should understand the need to assess each patient's capacity to make their own decisions and to allow them the opportunity to give and withdraw consent.

An assessment is a form of a dialogue between client and practitioner, in which they discuss the needs of the former to promote their wellbeing and what they expect to happen in their daily life ( National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), 2021 ). Nursing assessment involves collecting data from the patient and analysing the information to identify the patient's needs, which are sometimes described as problems.

The process of planning care employs different strategies to resolve the needs identified as part of an assessment. Ideally, this will include the selection of appropriate evidence-based nursing interventions. When planning care, the patient's needs and wishes should be prioritised, and the individual must be involved in the decision-making process to ensure a person-centred approach. The planned care must take into account the patient's conditions, personal attributes and choices. It is worth noting that the principles of care planning are transferable between hospital, home and care home settings.

Section 2 of the NMC Code highlights the importance of partnership working with patients to ensure the delivery of effective high-quality care and of involving them in their care, which includes empowering patients by enabling them to make their own decisions ( NMC, 2018b ). The patient should be viewed holistically, with importance placed on the physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of the person's life, which are inextricable.

The intrinsic factors of a patient's condition will often affect their concordance with the advice and treatment offered. Consequently, it is important to understand the reasons for non-concordance and to tailor treatments/recommendations to each individual, which will improve the quality of care delivered.

Brooker (2007) developed the acronym VIPS to address some of the confusion surrounding what should or should not be perceived as person-centred care. VIPS stresses the following:

• V is a value base that affirms the value of each human being, irrespective of age and cognitive ability. This is the foundation for individualised care
• I is individualised care that considers the individual's distinctiveness and holistic needs
• P is about seeing the world from the patient's perspective, to ensure that the health professional takes the patient's point of view into account when providing care
• S is about maintaining a social environment that supports the patient's psychological needs, including their mental, emotional and spiritual needs.

Health professionals should endeavour to involve the patient in decision-making and enable them to make choices as much as possible, using a range of approaches to achieve this ( Lloyd, 2010 ). Unless proven otherwise, a nurse must assume that a patient has the capacity to make their own decisions, in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

The following draws on the author's experience in mental health nursing but can be applied to other areas of nursing care.

Care planning

Planning care is essential in the delivery of appropriate nursing care. Following assessment of a patient's needs, the next stage is to ‘plan care’ to address the actual and potential problems that have been identified. This helps to prioritise the client's needs and assists in setting person-centred goals. Planned care will change as a patient's needs change and as the nurse and/or other health professionals identify new needs. Care planning assists professionals to communicate information about the patient's care to others ( Department of Health (DH), 2013a ; NICE, 2021 ), to facilitate continuity of care. Communication may be predominantly verbal, but it will also always involve documentation in a variety of formats, including computer-based, handwritten or preprinted care plans.

It is essential for nurses to consider their consultation style when developing a care plan in order to reduce the risk of paternalism when communicating with the patient and discussing their needs. Collaborative consultation encourages patients to participate in their care and improves rapport, while a paternalistic approach will generally minimise an individual's part in, and responsibility for, their own care needs and may compromise care outcomes and concordance ( Leach, 2010 ). A collaborative/partnership consultation style facilitates a person-centred approach by the practitioners and involves the patient in their care. Such an approach can include asking questions such as: ‘We have different types of treatment approaches that could be considered, what are your preferences?’ This is in contrast to a paternalistic consultation style with the health professional announcing any decisions with a statement such as: ‘I am going to prescribe a certain treatment for you.’

When drawing up a care plan with a patient the nurse should take into account a number of considerations ( Box 1 ).

Box 1.Nursing considerations

• The patient should know the reason for the assessment
• The assessment should be flexible and adaptable to the needs of the individual
• The patient must be fully involved and their dignity, independence, and interests should be paramount
• The patient can have someone with them, if preferred
• Appropriate language and terminologies should be used throughout the consultation
• The diversity of the individual client, their beliefs, values, culture and their circumstances must be considered
• It is essential to consider the patient's gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability and religion as part of the assessment
• Be open to listening to the patient's personal history and life story
• The entire family's needs should be considered, inclusive of the patient and their carers: remember the importance of providing holistic care
• Cost-effectiveness should also be taken into account

Sources: Department of Health, 2011; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2021

Stages of care planning

Care planning has been described as the third stage of the nursing process ( NMC, 2018a ; Toney-Butler and Thayer, 2021 ). It includes assessing the patient's needs, identifying the problem(s), setting goals, developing evidence-based interventions and evaluating outcomes ( Matthews, 2010 ). This will require the health professional to apply high-level critical thinking, decision-making and problem-solving skills. It is important to note that a care plan can be prescriptive: it is devised after a patient has been assessed through the prescription of nursing actions ( Hogston and Simpson, 2002 ) or through collaborative working involving the multidisciplinary team.

In some situations there will be differences between what the nurse sees as a priority in terms of the patient's needs and what the patient wants. An example of this would be a patient with mental health problems who may be at high risk of self-harm, who may need to be put on intermittent 15-minute observation. In such cases, a patient would be deemed as not having capacity to make decisions and the nurse will need to use their clinical judgement to prescribe the best treatment option. The care plan can still be agreed in conjunction with the patient once the nurse has explained the reasons for the interventions and acknowledged in the care plan that this is not the patient's preferred choice.

In situations where the patient has capacity to make decisions, the care plan should be agreed in collaboration with the service user ( NHS England, 2016a ).

Identifying needs

As part of the care planning process, the nurse will identify a patient's needs/problems and propose a set of interventions to address them in order of priority, ensuring that everything is in agreement with the patient. To ensure that appropriate goals are set, a patient's needs will be classified as high, intermediate and low.

Each goal provides an indication as to the expected outcome, along with the proposed interventions required to meet the patient's problems/needs, all of which must be patient centred. It is important, in collaboration with the patient, to set both short-term, achievable goals and longer-term goals that may take days, weeks or months to accomplish. One way nurses can ensure this is to apply the SMART goal-setting approach to ensure that the goals are ( Revello and Fields, 2015 ; NurseChoice, 2018 ):

• M easurable
• A chievable
• T imely (within a defined time frame).

Interventions

Interventions are nursing actions/procedures or treatments built on clinical judgement and knowledge, performed to meet the needs of patients. The actions should be evidence based and indicate who will carry them out, when and how often ( Hogston and Simpson, 2002 ). The scheduled interventions will have been agreed with the patient with the aim of improving their health condition, and each subsequent action should strive to meet the goals set at the previous stage. Brooks (2019) outlined three types of intervention:

• Those independently initiated by nurses
• Those that are dependent on a physician or other health professionals
• Those that are interdependent, that is, those rely on the experience, skills and knowledge of multiple professionals.

Independent nursing interventions are planned and actioned by nurses autonomously ( NMC, 2018a ), and these actions do not require the nurse to have direction from another health professional. When actioning interventions dependent on other health professionals, the nurses must determine the appropriateness of any directions from other health professionals before carrying them out because the nurse remains accountable for the actions, for example, the administration of prescribed medication ( NMC, 2018a ). Due to developments in the nursing profession, some advanced nurse practitioners can now prescribe interventions, eg prescription of medication can be done by nurse independent prescribers or nurse supplementary prescribers ( Royal College of Nursing, 2014 ). Interdependent interventions are usually recorded in collaborative care plans reviewed in multidisciplinary (MDT) meetings and must be agreed by all parties involved. Both the goals and interventions must be communicated in a timely manner to all those involved in the patient's care.

This is the stage when a planned intervention is evaluated to assess whether or not it has been achieved. This can be an ongoing process, and the care plan should document the frequency and time frame for evaluating the intervention. If the initial goal becomes unachievable, the nurse will be required to reassess the patient's needs, and review and revise the interventions.

Benefits of care planning

The DH (2011) highlighted that the aim of care planning is to improve the quality of care and outcomes by respecting individual wishes and enabling patients to acknowledge the ownership of their condition and ensuring they have the ability to influence the outcomes. Health professionals should engage individuals in decision-making and facilitate them to take control of their health by agreeing common goals to improve outcomes. This will have additional benefits for both the patient and health services as it should reduce the number of GP appointments and emergency admissions the patient may require. Promoting self-management of long-term conditions can also help slow progression of illness.

Care planning empowers patients to care for themselves when they are self-managing their health and when they may have difficulty accessing a health professional. This became evident during the pandemic, with patients often having to go for extended periods between appointments with their health professionals. Care planning has really come into its own in community care in the past few years, which became evident during the pandemic—particularly in the field of mental health—because it leads to better patient concordance with treatment and other care needs without the need for constant input by health professionals. This benefits both health professionals and the NHS: it increases job satisfaction, brings efficiency savings and improves the quality of patient care ( DH, 2011 ).

Model of care

Models of care are used to deliver best practice in health care. An integrated services care model is multifaceted and enables the co-ordination of care by different health and social care professionals to meet individual patient needs. It encompasses patient-centred care and enables care staff across different providers to reduce duplication, confusion, delay and gaps in services ( Monitor, 2015 ). In the modern NHS, this is the preferred model of care.

The care plan is an integral part of this model because it enables the creation of shared care plans that map different care processes. It becomes a point of reference for various providers involved in the care of the patients, ensuring the co-ordination of care across services ( Curry and Ham, 2010 ; World Health Organization, 2016 ).

Care pathways

Care pathways, which are also known as critical pathways, clinical pathways, integrated care pathways, care paths and care maps, are used to describe a specific patient journey that dictates the care to be provided or process to be followed for a patient's particular condition or needs. An evidence-based care process is established for specific conditions by considering expert opinion that takes into account the evidence to recommend interventions that have been shown to achieve better health outcomes cost-effectively ( Centre for Policy on Ageing, 2014 ).

Care pathways are often developed at local level and have been shown to be efficacious at meeting local needs. They are also known to improve cross-setting collaborations. Clinical pathways are aimed at providing effective health care appropriate for the patient group of conditions, thereby reducing hospital stays, leading to cost-effective health care ( Kozier et al, 2008 ).

Care clusters

Care clustering is a needs assessment tool that is used to rate a patient's care need against specific scales:

‘A cluster is a global description of a group of people with similar characteristics as identified from a holistic assessment and then rated using the Mental Health Clustering Tool (MHCT).’

NHS England, 2016b

This framework is used to plan and organise mental health services, including the care and support provided to individuals based on their illness and individual needs. One of the care clustering tools used in the NHS is the Health of the Nations Outcome Scales (HoNOS) ( Wing et al, 1998 ; Yeomans, 2014 ; NHS England, 2016b ).

Mental health services were brought under the scope of Payment by Results (PbR) in the NHS in 2012-2013.

‘Payment by Results (PbR) is the transparent rules-based payment system in England under which commissioners pay healthcare providers for each patient seen or treated, taking into account the complexity of the patient's healthcare needs.’

Consequently, as part of the care planning process, nurses need to take into account the cost-effectiveness of any interventions in order to consider how much funding is likely to be available for an initial completion of assessments, during scheduled reassessment and at any subsequent reassessment after a significant change in the patient's needs.

Box 2.Importance of complying with guidelines when undertaking assessment and planning care

• You must be compliant with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018b ; 2021 ) guidelines for record and record-keeping
• Adhere to the employing local organisation's policy on record-keeping, eg local trust policy
• Follow the NHS trust Care Programme Approach (CPA) policy ( Department of Health, 2008 )
• Collaborate with all those involved in a patient's care planning process

Importance of record-keeping

Accurate record-keeping is essential in the assessment of needs and planning care. This complies with the NMC (2018b) which states that record-keeping is fundamental to nursing practice, emphasising that records must be accurate and precise.

Health professionals should be aware of the need for legal accountability when documenting care in a written record because such records could be used in any legal proceedings ( Dimond, 2005 ). A record refers to not only a patient's record, but encompasses all records related to an individual nurse's range of practice. It is important to include the person being cared for in the record-keeping process, who should be asked to sign the plan of care, if they have capacity to do so ( NMC, 2021 ).

It is good practice to make an entry in the care documentation if a service user is unable to sign or agree to their planned care and state the reason for this ( Butterworth, 2012 ). In addition to paper-based records, care plans can be entered into the electronic health/patient record system used in the practitioner's service ( NHS website, 2019 ).

Best practice in writing care plans

There are some critical factors to consider when writing a focused person-centred care plan. One of these is to clearly document in detail the needs of the patient and to use the patient's language whenever possible, for example: ‘Mr D likes to dress smart every morning, but has been finding it difficult to make the choice of clothing to wear.’ An example of a poor way to record the same issue might be: ‘Mr D is unable to dress by himself’ and the aim is ‘Mr D will appear to dress smartly’.

The documented goal/aim of the care plan should be determined by applying the SMART acronym. It is therefore vital to ensure that the aim is specific by focusing on issues that can be measured, with goals that are achievable and realistic. It is also important to suggest and record a time frame within which a patient's short-term and long-term goals could be achieved. In relations to Mr D's clothing, a daily time frame might be appropriate. To come to an agreement over this issue, Mr D might be asked: ‘Mr D, would you like to be able to make your own choice of clothes to wear every day with the support of staff?’ The projected daily goal would then be recorded as part of the care plan documentation.

An intervention must specify how a goal/aim will be achieved, including who will be responsible for implementing each task. This could be the staff nurse on duty, team nurse, team leader, the nurse in charge and/or the patient (please put the patient's name). Evaluation should be carried out regularly and documented, and should conform with the proposed time frame outlined as part of the suggested intervention. Evaluations should be undertaken whenever actions are performed in accordance with each proposed intervention, and details of the progress of the patient's problem/needs documented.

In conclusion, the article has discussed the importance of assessing patients' needs, emphasising person-centred care using the VIPS acronym devised by Brooker (2007) . It has stressed the notion for all nursing interventions to be evidence based. The stages of care planning were discussed, and the application of the SMART goal-setting approach was highlighted. Record-keeping is an integral part of care planning in the communication of patient's care and progress. The benefits of care planning in improving quality of care and outcomes, respecting individual wishes, thereby empowering the patient was recognised.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Nurses must ensure that assessment of patient needs and care planning are always focused on the person
• All nursing interventions must be evidence based
• The goals set out in a patient's care plan must be achievable and measurable, and should include time frames within which both short- and long-term goals can be achieved
• Record-keeping is a vital component of care planning and is part of communicating aspects of a patient's care, and their progress towards their goals, with other health professionals involved in their care

CPD reflective questions

• In the context of a patient's health, what should you aim to do when care planning?
• Who should you involve in the care planning and why? Should the patient have a copy of the care plan?
• Is it acceptable to destroy care plans or other records?
• When should care plans be reviewed?

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How to write a nursing career plan essay, rachel r.n..

• May 18, 2024
• How to Guides

Nursing is a highly rewarding and noble career path that allows individuals to make a meaningful impact on the lives of patients and their families. It is a profession that requires a deep sense of compassion, dedication, and a sincere desire to help others. Pursuing a career in nursing is a significant decision that demands a clear understanding of one’s goals and aspirations. Writing a nursing career goal essay is a crucial step in the admission process for nursing programs, as it provides an opportunity for prospective students to articulate their motivations, aspirations, and vision for their future in the nursing profession.

What You'll Learn

What is a nursing career goal essay?

A nursing career goal essay is a comprehensive written statement that outlines an individual’s reasons for choosing to pursue a career in nursing. It serves as a platform for applicants to express their passion, motivation, and commitment to the nursing field. This essay allows admissions committees to gain insight into the applicant’s thought process, values, and long-term goals within the nursing profession.

What’s included in a nursing career goal essay?

A well-crafted nursing career goal essay should encompass the following key elements:

• Personal background and inspiration: In this section, applicants should share their personal experiences, life events, or encounters that sparked their interest in the nursing profession. This could include instances where they witnessed the impact of nurses firsthand, or experiences that highlighted their innate desire to care for others.
• Career goals: Clearly outlining both short-term and long-term career goals is essential in a nursing career goal essay. Short-term goals may include obtaining a specific nursing degree or certification, gaining experience in a particular healthcare setting, or developing proficiency in a specialized area of nursing. Long-term goals could involve pursuing advanced degrees, such as a master’s or doctoral degree, or aspiring to leadership roles, such as nurse manager or nurse educator.
• Strengths and qualities: Applicants should highlight the personal strengths, qualities, and skills that make them well-suited for a career in nursing. This could include attributes such as empathy, critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, effective communication skills, resilience, and the ability to work well under pressure.
• Contributions to the field: In this section, applicants should explain how they plan to contribute to the nursing profession and make a positive impact on patient care or the healthcare system as a whole. This could involve discussing their commitment to ongoing professional development, their desire to advocate for patient rights, or their interest in participating in research or quality improvement initiatives.
• Educational and professional aspirations: Applicants should discuss their educational goals, such as obtaining a bachelor’s or master’s degree in nursing, as well as their professional aspirations, which could include pursuing specialized roles like nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, or nurse educator.

How to write a nursing career goal essay sample:

• Reflect and introspect: Take time to reflect on your personal experiences, values, and aspirations that have led you to the decision to pursue a career in nursing. Engage in introspection to identify the key motivations and goals that resonate most strongly with you.
• Create an outline : Develop a well-structured outline that organizes your thoughts and ensures that your essay flows logically. This outline should include an engaging introduction, body paragraphs that address each of the key elements mentioned above, and a compelling conclusion.
• Craft an engaging introduction: Begin your essay with a captivating introduction that immediately captures the reader’s attention and sets the tone for your essay. Consider using a relevant anecdote, a thought-provoking quote, or a compelling statistic to pique the reader’s interest.
• Incorporate examples and personal anecdotes: Throughout your essay, incorporate relevant examples and personal anecdotes that illustrate your points and make your essay more engaging and authentic. These personal stories can help the admissions committee better understand your motivations and connect with your narrative.
• Proofread and revise: Carefully proofread and revise your essay to ensure that it is well-written, free of errors, and effectively communicates your message. Consider seeking feedback from trusted individuals, such as mentors, professors, or writing center professionals, to help you refine and strengthen your essay.

Related Articles: ESSAY WRITING SAMPLE: NURSING CAREER PLAN

Tips for writing a good nursing career goal essay:

• Be authentic and honest: S hare your genuine motivations, experiences, and goals in your essay. Authenticity and honesty can make your essay stand out and resonate with the admissions committee.
• Highlight your unique qualities: Emphasize the unique qualities, experiences, or perspectives that make you a strong candidate for a nursing career. This could include your cultural background, life experiences, or personal values that align with the nursing profession.
• Demonstrate your knowledge and passion: Throughout your essay, showcase your understanding of the nursing profession and your passion for helping others and improving patient care. Discuss the specific aspects of nursing that resonate with you and how you plan to contribute to the field.
• Tailor your essay: Customize your essay to the specific nursing program or institution you are applying to, and address any prompts or requirements provided. Research the program’s values, mission, and focus areas to ensure your essay aligns with their goals and objectives.
• Focus on the future: While reflecting on your past experiences is important, ensure that your essay primarily focuses on your future goals and aspirations within the nursing profession. Discuss how your experiences have shaped your vision and how you plan to continue growing and contributing to the field.
• Use appropriate language and tone: Maintain a professional and academic tone throughout your essay, using appropriate language and avoiding colloquialisms or informal expressions. At the same time, strive to write in a clear and concise manner, making your essay engaging and easy to read.
• Seek feedback and revise: After completing your initial draft, seek feedback from trusted individuals, such as mentors, professors, or writing center professionals. Use their feedback to refine and strengthen your essay, ensuring that it effectively communicates your message and showcases your qualifications as a strong candidate for the nursing program.

50 Nursing Career Goals

• Become a registered nurse (RN) by completing a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) .
• Write a nursing career plan to outline my professional journey.
• Choose nursing as a career to make a difference in patient care.
• Develop nursing skills to provide excellent nursing care.
• Pursue a career in nursing with a focus on holistic care.
• Pass nursing school admissions to enroll in a top nursing program .
• Specialize in a specific area of nursing , such as pediatrics or oncology.
• Write a nursing career essay to articulate my passion for nursing.
• Set long-term goals in nursing , such as becoming a nurse educator.
• Write an effective nursing personal statement for job applications.
• Gain experience as a nurse practitioner to provide advanced care.
• Achieve certification as a family nurse practitioner (FNP) .
• Write a nursing school essay that highlights my commitment to nursing.
• Participate in continuing education to stay current in nursing practice.
• Write your nursing career goals in a journal to track progress.
• Aim for a leadership role in nursing, such as nurse manager.
• Pursue a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) to advance my career.
• Contribute to nursing research to improve patient outcomes.
• Focus on patient-centered care throughout my nursing career.
• Mentor nursing students to help them achieve their career goals.
• Write an essay on why I want to become a nurse to inspire others.
• Work in a care home nurse setting to support elderly patients.
• Develop a nursing career plan essay to define my professional aspirations.
• Aim to become a professional nurse who excels in patient care.
• Pursue a doctoral degree in nursing (DNP) for advanced practice roles.
• Write your nursing experience essay to reflect on clinical experiences.
• Set short-term nursing goals , such as improving specific nursing skills.
• Become an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) to expand my scope of practice.
• Provide care for patients with compassion and empathy.
• Explore career options in nursing to find the best fit for my skills.
• Write a good nursing career path essay to outline future steps.
• Aim to work in nursing education to teach future nurses.
• Develop a passion for nursing by continually learning and growing.
• Focus on nursing goals that improve patient and family outcomes.
• Pursue a career in the medical field with a focus on nursing.
• Write an essay on the reasons for choosing nursing as a profession.
• Work towards becoming a great nurse known for excellent care.
• Achieve competence in advanced nursing skills to enhance patient care.
• Aim for a rewarding career in nursing that makes a significant impact.
• Pursue specialized training in areas like critical care or emergency nursing.
• Write a personal statement for nursing school admissions to stand out.
• Focus on holistic care to address all aspects of a patient’s well-being.
• Engage in professional development opportunities in nursing.
• Aim to care for others with the highest standards of nursing practice.
• Work towards a leadership role in nursing staff management.
• Develop a nursing career goal essay to clarify my objectives.
• Pursue advanced nursing degrees to open more career opportunities.
• Work on improving nursing practice through evidence-based approaches.
• Aim to provide excellent nursing care to every patient.
• Write a good nursing career goals essay to inspire and guide others interested in nursing.

What is your ambition as a nurse? Your ambition in nursing should not only be about becoming a nurse but also about evolving into the best nurse you can be. This implies continuous learning and skill enhancement. Pursue professional development opportunities, learn from experienced colleagues, and stay updated with advancements in healthcare

How do you write a career plan essay?

Three elements of a successful career goals essay Highlight specific career achievements. … Explain why your experiences and influences make your career goal a logical and wise choice. Demonstrate why you are suited to a particular field as a result of your education, experience, abilities, and enthusiasm.

What are the 5 nursing plans? The nursing process functions as a systematic guide to client-centered care with 5 sequential steps. These are assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation.

What are the 6 C’s of nursing? The 6 Cs – care, compassion, courage, communication, commitment, competence – are a central part of ‘Compassion in Practice’, which was first established by NHS England Chief Nursing Officer, Jane Cummings, in December 201

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A Change Acton Plan: BayCare Case Essay

Introduction, implementing change, change action plan, ways to leverage insights from employees, alignment with organization goals.

BayCare is a not-for-profit healthcare system that provides services to individuals residing in Central Florida. Services cover inpatient and outpatient interventions with core areas of medicine, including behavioral health. BayCare encompasses 15 hospitals with the common goal of providing high-quality care based on empathy and compassion (Evolution change management, 2017). BayCare follows the need to integrate change into nursing practice, which is why it recently introduced hourly rounds as a preventive intervention to reduce patient falls.

BayCare decided to introduce changes related to the nursing organization to improve the quality of care provided and to create preventive measures against complications. Among the measures introduced were hourly nursing rounds aimed at assessing patients and checking their condition, reducing the frequency of falls among patients with significant disabilities or general health problems. This measure combines several essential criteria for change: it is rational and evidence-based (Meade et al., 2006), encouraged by the organization itself, and tied to specific BayCare values. The change introduced has positively impacted the patient comfort situation in hospitals.

This intervention was planned to improve overall patient safety in BayCare-owned hospitals. It included preparing nurses for the change, as this is the only way to achieve an understanding among staff of why interventions are essential. In addition, the nurses received a lot of background information about the change being introduced, its practical side, and the associated opportunities. Finally, they shared their perceptions of the change and discussed its perspectives.

This tight and confident plan to prepare for the integration of the change allowed BayCare to make significant gains in the impact of the intervention. The number of falls among patients decreased significantly, and the nurses took a leadership role in making their rounds. Having a leader who managed the other nurses made it possible to reach a mutual understanding of what order should be established during rounds. Truong et al. (2021) indicated that such organization and autonomy promoted a standard policy and evaluation of the effectiveness of the changes being introduced. Consequently, having a leadership position and a source of organization for introducing hourly rounds allowed for positive results.

BayCare’s behavior can be assessed as positive and consistent with organizational values and principles. The organization took a long time to think about the intervention and put much effort into its implementation. Nevertheless, it must be recognized that BayCare encountered typical problems, expressed in a lack of total acceptance of the practices being introduced and a lack of understanding of the need for change. Mistakes in the first stages of introducing the change can be attributed to the fact that the encouragement of the change was initially ad hoc and was not extended universally to participants. BayCare learned its lesson from this: added information resources to training, prepared equipment for nurses, and regulated human resources processes.

For BayCare, the most promising plan for change that will significantly improve current outcomes and reduce unnecessary risk may be a plan with about five steps. At the first stage, BayCare should worry about who, in addition to direct leadership, would be willing to participate in implementing change (Sumanasiri, 2020). Although they brought in a nurse leader, this was not enough to be fully organized. This is why BayCare must establish a task force of individuals who can position staff and manage change integration. This change team will identify a fundamental problem – injuries among patients in hospitals from falls (Di Massimo et al., 2022). The problem is valid, and the change team must make a case for why they should be in charge of the current policy.

Secondly, BayCare must establish the quantitative and qualitative indicators the change will target. This step allows us to determine exactly who and why the target audience for the changes are – individuals at risk of injury from falls, and who will prevent them – nurses. This step should also establish a goal: to reduce falls and injuries from falls. BayCare’s third phase will establish that introducing hourly rounds is an evidence-based practice to improve patient safety. This phase consists of collecting data on ways to overcome the problem, the effectiveness of those ways, and directly developing an individualized solution pathway (Rousseau & Have, 2022). These two phases define the relationship between theoretical assumptions and explicit practical evidence from potential interventions that can be implemented in the current setting.

In the fourth step, the organization’s main task is to develop a plan for continuous improvement that can be integrated into the change process. For BayCare, it consists, in particular, of equipping the nurses on rounds with the necessary equipment, changing the team of supervising nurses and changing how they communicate with each other. This step improves accountability for actions taken and feedback, which allows for the evaluation of integrated changes (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). Without change tracking, the likelihood of successfully implementing change will gradually diminish.

The final step would be to evaluate the final plan and begin implementing it. BayCare should provide all of its goals, objectives, and potential solutions in a list or flowchart that will serve as a practical guide to change. Leaders and leadership who have proposed to launch the change process should take responsibility for keeping the communication pathways straight because it will allow them to manage competently (Sumanasiri, 2020). During the final evaluation phase, the change team must weigh in on the introduced changes and disseminate them to the individuals who will implement them – leaders and nurses. BayCare will be better able to prepare for all the potential outcomes of the change, which are more likely to be positive (Rousseau & Have, 2022). The organization must begin implementing the changes and monitor their implementation carefully to avoid increasing the risks of failure or making mistakes. The steps described will accomplish this if BayCare ensures sufficient communication (Errida & Lotfi, 2021) and assesses exactly how employees may respond to change (Higgins & Bourne, 2018). Taken together, these steps will achieve the most favorable outcome possible.

Personnel is the main driving force behind the organization that allows any change to occur. In essence, the staff is the individuals who do the fieldwork, and any company needs to maintain its involvement in change processes to achieve positive results (Albrecht et al., 2022). Involvement can consist of direct staff involvement in decision-making for BayCare, and it is the feedback from the nurses who start making the rounds. This information goes to management, and management accepts and analyzes it, decides to add resources to the nurses, and brings the information down again (Albrecht et al., 2022). This communication allows the company’s values to be maintained at all stages of change management. Higgins and Bourne (2018) suggest that to successfully implement change, potential behavioral patterns among staff must be assessed, e.g., rejection or active participation. Since nurses are the first to respond to a new work policy, their opinions are the primary source of information about the effectiveness of changes in the implementation and improvement phases.

The competitive ability of any organization is made up of whether its activities are in the community’s best interest and the staff of that organization. The employees act as the key to creating a dynamic, evolving environment in which change flows easily (Ghar & Masood, 2022). BayCare can use its relationships with staff to co-design changes that benefit all stakeholders. If management is willing to consult with their current change agents in the early stages, the success of such a change will be much higher. During their preparation phase, it is essential to reach out directly to the nurses to understand the change (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). Simply guiding will not be enough; it is important to hear what the staff who are the fastest to experience the effects of change are saying.

BayCare, like any other healthcare organization, is committed to delivering the highest level of care. Their goal is to achieve positive outcomes in patient care and population survival. According to BayCare’s official statement, their values are trust, respect, and dignity (Our mission and values, n.d.). As part of the change process, it is reflected in the stages of establishing the underlying problem and how it is addressed (Evolution change management, 2017). As BayCare strives to provide highly skilled care, this cannot be achieved without a positive trend in hospital surveillance. Integrating changes to continually improve patient monitoring and the organization of their safe and comfortable hospital stays is critical.

The values of trust and respect are best seen in stages three and four of the change process. The organization accepts the responsibility to respect the current evidence of evidence-based practices that can enable progress in solving the problem. In addition, it also considers the views of the nurses who will integrate these practices into the work. A trusting relationship is created between management and patients through the caring work of the nurses, in which health care directs all efforts to help patients (Our mission and Values, n.d.). BayCare, through this process of change, provides its patients with the support, resources, and equipment that will best achieve the primary goal of recovery.

Thus, any change process that integrates into an organization must go through specific steps to achieve the best results. Concerning BayCare’s change practices, significant progress has been made in reducing the incidence of falls among patients within the hospital. This has been achieved through the introduction of hourly patient rounds, which have allowed falls to be identified and prevented. For this change, it is recommended that the change process be based on a five-step model that seeks to clearly define who is making the change, how, why, and for whom, and what goals it is trying to achieve. This aligns with BayCare’s values of striving to provide patients with a comfortable and safe hospital stay despite their health challenges. BayCare should focus on direct interaction with staff and learning their behavioral strategies, establishing communication and feedback systems, and preparing the ground for change in a timely and appropriate manner. This will allow the organization to achieve results with maximum efficiency and minimize costs.

Albrecht, S. L., Connaughton, S., & Leiter, M. P. (2022). The influence of change-related organizational and job resources on employee change engagement . Frontiers in Psychology, 13 . Web.

Errida, A., & Lotfi, B. (2021). The determinants of organizational change management success: Literature review and case study . International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 13. Web.

Evolution change management: A journey and a new awareness in 2017. (2017). PowerPoint Presentation.

Ghar, A., & Masood, H. (2022). A review of organization change management and employee performance. Journal of Xidian University, 16 (1), 494-506. Web.

Higgins, D., & Bourne, P. A. (2018). Implementing change in an organization: A general overview. Scholarly Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 1 (1). Web.

Meade, C. M., Bursell, A. L., & Ketelsen, L. (2006). Effects of nursing rounds: On patients’ call light use, satisfaction, and safety. The American Journal of Nursing, 106 (9), 58-70.

Our mission and values . (n.d.). BayCare. Web.

Rousseau, D. M., & Have, S. t. (2022). Evidence-based change management . Organizational Dynamics,51 (3). Web.

Sumanasiri, E. A. G. (2020). Value-based organizational leadership: A literature review . Journal of Economics, Management and Trade, 26 (4), 94-104. Web.

Truong, M., Bourke, C., Jones, Y., Cook, O., & Lawton, P. (2021). Equity in clinical practice requires organizational and system-level change – The role of nurse leaders . Collegian, 28 (3), 346-350. Web.

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