Week 6

Week 6 –

This week we further discussed the Standards of Practice, but one of the threads that was subsequently created was dealing with Nursing Care Plans. I did not comment on this thread, as I had honestly never heard of a care plan, nor did I understand the significance of this. It was very interesting to read some of the discussions, especially from my fellow students who come from a LPN background. While it is something that is completely daunting to me, to develop a plan for a client, I also know that it is something that I am going to have plenty of opportunity to watch, be supervised over, and have my questions answered while still a student.

While working in the school board (over 10 years ago now), I was part of a team of professionals that worked on IEP’s. This is Individualized Education Plans, and I kept thinking of the parallels of these two plans. As with IEP’s, a multidimensional team made up of psychiatrists, teachers, student assistants, counsellors, and administration would come together and assess the student. Together we would provide knowledge, insight and history to develop the IEP. We would take into account the student’s learning style, any personal care they need, any medications they are on, their level of education, as well as any community involvement that they need. No two IEPs looked alike, as each student is individual, requiring different levels of care. I believe this to be true with nursing care plans as well. This would be why there is no standardized form – but instead a list of guidelines to follow, questions to ask, and information to gather so that the care plan can be created for care, resolutions and evaluation.

Wikipedia explains it this way:

A nursing care play outlines the nursing care to be provided to a patient. IT is a set of actions the nurses will implement to resolve nursing problems identified by assessment. The creation of the plan is an intermediate stage of the nursing process. It guides in the ongoing provision of nursing care and assists in the evaluation of that care.
1. It focuses on actions which are designed to solve or minimize the existing problem.
2. It is a product of a deliberate systematic process.
3. It relates to the future.
4. It is based upon identifiable health and nursing problems.
5. Its focus is holistic.
6. It focuses to meet all the needs of the service user.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing_care_plan