Patient care plans refer to written implements that describe nursing goals, diagnoses, and interventions. A care plan is especially appropriate for nursing students as they master the process of nursing. By writing patient care plans based on an assessment of patients, nurses learn how to organize,   plan interventions and goals, and assess outcomes associated with particular disease processes. A patient care plan is essential for conversation between a nurse and other members of the care team to provide evidence-based, high-quality, and continuous care.

This article is an in-depth summary of patient care plans, their benefits and the different care plan types. Our homework writing services will make you an expert in your respect nursing field.

Patient Care Plans

A patient care plan is an organized framework for offering patient care. A patient care plan is often referred to as the “care plan” and gives directions to a nurse and the collaborative team on the best treatment plan for the patients under their care. A care plan is often defined as the patient care’s roadmap since it helps a nurse evaluate, plan, rationalize, and prioritize interventions.

Why Use Patient Care Plans?

The following are several benefits of utilizing a care plan in patient care.

1. Follows the patient from admission all the way to discharge.
   A care plan is continually updated based on the outcomes, status, and goals of a patient, and follows the patient to various care settings and around facility transfers.
2. Helps a nurse revise care and plan interventions.
   A care plan provides a layout for interventions, enabling a nurse to evaluate the outcome of the intervention and probably revise care depending on the result.
3. Evaluates interventions.
   A care plan includes an aggregate of long-term and short-term goals that are timely, specific, and measurable. Nurses can assess if an intervention is efficient by analyzing goal progression.
4. Continuity and communication between nurses.
   Care plans are documents that assist nurses in offering consistent and continuous care, operating toward shared objectives.
5. Integrates other disciplines.
   A care plan might include interventions or input other members of an interdisciplinary team provide. Care plans communicate priorities between members of the inter professional teams to integrate ordinary goals.
6. Deal with patient-centered care/ the patient.
   Whenever possible, a patient must take part in writing their care plan. A patient care plan is best used jointly with families and patients to justify a patient’s lifestyle, preferences, culture, and values.
7. Documentation purposes.
   A care plan is a nurse’s opportunity to show that ethical and safe care was offered as per the nursing ethical considerations. Documentation might be utilized for legal proceedings, communication, research, or quality improvement.
8. Offers consistent care framework.
   Nursing diagnoses support the care plans and outline relevant interventions. A nursing diagnosis must correspond to NANDA-I nursing diagnoses, creating nursing diagnoses terminology consistency and facilitating efficient communication.
9. Prevents health hazards at a future date.
   Some patient care plans might comprise patient nursing diagnoses risks, like infection or falls. Care plan goals and interventions can be made to avoid complications.

Patient Care Plans Types

The format and structure of patient care plans rely on the care plan’s purpose and the healthcare setting. These patient care plan types are ideal for your assignment writing;

1.      Informal vs. formal Care Planning

Normally, an informal care plan isn’t formally documented. An informal care plan may include the goals of a nurse for his/her shift. The objectives can be changed based on the priorities of the day or the patient’s condition changes.

A Formal care plan is documented as a patient record part used to maintain, coordinate, and prioritize care continuity. While a formal care plan is also modifiable based on the intervention outcomes or new priorities, they’re often associated with the patient’s longer-term goals. Formal care plans might involve goals to achieve before the service or hospital discharge. Both informal and formal plans of care are utilized within the nursing process framework.

2.      Individualized vs. Standardized Care Planning

A care plan might be either individualized or standardized for patients. Many healthcare settings will utilize a standardized care plan for specified conditions of patients to provide consistent care. Post-surgical unit post-operative care pathways are examples of standardized care plans. These post-operative plans of care outline anticipated goals for all post-operative days. However, a standardized care plan must be tailored whenever possible to meet the requirements of an individual patient.

Contrarily, an individualized care plan is written for the needs of an individual patient. An individualized care plan must include the patient’s input preferably to support the adherence of patients and create customized goals. When creating a customized care plan, think about motivational factors and the history, and health status of the patient, and make enquiries on what is important to them.

Cancer patient nursing care plan

Acute Pain Management Interventions

1. Encourage your patients to utilize nonpharmacologic interventions for pain relief.
   Heat, meditation, massage, and other alteration activities promote pain relief and relaxation.
2. Administer medications for pain relief as recommended.
   NSAIDs and Opioids might be authorized to assist control of pain in cancer patients.
3. Educate the patients about the plan of pain management.
   Improved pain control is attained when the patients have a clear grasp of the pain’s nature, its treatment, and its causes.
4. Provide resources for dealing with the pain’s psychological impacts.
   Cancer pain influences every aspect of the well-being of the patient. Cognitive behavioural approaches can assist patients with dealing with discomfort as well as other irritating pain effects.
5. Encourage complementary medicine if not risky
   Complementary therapies such as hypnotherapy, acupuncture, aromatherapy, and yoga can assist in pain relief without medication adverse effects.

Interventions for Death Anxiety

1. Encourage the patients to verbalize feelings and thoughts.
   Acknowledging a patient’s imminent death and cancer diagnosis emotions and feelings enhances trust and a caring connection. An oncology nurse is often a patient support system as they go through cancer medication.
2. Educate the patients about the grief stages.
   The process of grieving is essential to assist in identifying and framing the feelings of a person. Understanding the process of grieving will strengthen the feelings of normality experienced by a patient after the diagnosis of cancer, enabling them to cope with the grieving period more effectively.
3. Encourage close relatives to be part of patient care.
   An authentic system of support will assist the patients feel less abandoned. Encourage the patients to rely on their family and friends for support.
4. Mention grief counselling.
   Spiritual advisors and counsellors can help patients with their anticipatory grieving and anxiety feelings.

Infection Risk Interventions

1. Emphasize control measures of infection.
   Regular hand hygiene protects the patients from infections. Isolating the patient and screening visitors will assist reduce droplet and airborne infection risk.
2. Stay at home whenever possible.
   Cancer patients should minimize their socializing with crowds of people like in restaurants or stores. When travelling out for crucial errands or appointments, a mask must be put on to minimize disease transmission.
3. Provide sufficient periods of rest but be active.
   Cancer patients experience weakness and fatigue as a result of the disease effects and its medication. Making sure that the patients have adequate periods of rest minimizes the fatigue incidence whereas adequate exercise will support healthy function of the immune system and prevent muscle function loss.
4. Alert the team of healthcare to infection signs.
   A flu or cold virus might be harmful to a cancer patient. Ensure the patients know to notify the patient care teams of all symptoms like mouth sores, fever, sore throat, cough, or chills.
5. Maintain invasive lines asepsis.
   Patients might have urinary catheters, PICC lines, or implanted ports. Maintain a sterile procedure while accessing an implanted port or changing a peripherally inserted central catheter dressing to avoid introducing bacteria. Keep urinary catheters clean always and discontinue when appropriate.

Dementia patient nursing care plan

• Preserve a secure environment. Dementia patients can be bewildered and might have mobility difficulty or wander.

• Encourage an organized routine, which may include bedtime routines, regular mealtimes, and scheduled activities.

• Provide medication as recommended to assist monitor the patients for any medication side effects – and manage symptoms.

• Monitor psychological and behavioral symptoms.

• Offer assistance for their living environment and social network, and assist with significant information about possible barriers to patient care.

Anaemia patient care plan

1. Control and assess for obvious bleeding signs

• External bleeding
• (Greater than 1 pad/hour) Heavy menstruation
• GI bleeding

Excessive blood loss causes poor perfusion and decreased oxygenation

2. Perform 12 lead electrocardiogram

Decreased volume of blood causes arrhythmias and tachycardia. Monitor for QT  prolongation and ST depression.

3. Replace volume of fluid per protocol of facility

• Intravenous fluids
• Administer transfusion of blood for Hemoglobin less than 8 (per provider and protocol)

For greater than 40 per cent volume blood loss, instant transfusion is needed

4. Monitor diagnostic assessment

• Lab values
• Computed Tomography scans for potential spleen or liver lacerations
• FOBT – non-invasive testing to decide if there exists a possible GI bleeding

Closely monitor these lab values:

• HGB (Normal results 12 to 15 Grams per Deciliter females; 13.5 to 16.5 Grams per Deciliter males)
• B12 (Normal results 2 to 20 Nanograms per Millilitre)
• Ferritin (Normal results 20-300 Nanograms per Millilitre) – the protein storing iron
• Iron (Normal results 50-175 Micrograms per Deciliter)

5. Observe oxygen saturation levels and provide oxygen as required

• If SpO2 level is <94 per cent, initiate 2L/min oxygen through a nasal cannula, as prescribed, and add as required

Lack of hemoglobin limits oxygenation and causes hypoxia which leads to damage to vital organs and tissues.

6. Administer medications

• Iron-deficiency anaemia iron supplements
• (GI bleed) Pantoprazole– helps stop peptic ulcer bleeding and minimize acid
• Electrolytes and IV fluids as the lab values require
• B12 deficiency oral supplements or B12 injections
• Erythropoietin is the hormone that might be administered to treat chronic kidney disease (CKD) or chemotherapy anaemia. It activates the bone marrow red blood cell production

7. Provide nutritional training

• Increase leafy green vegetables
• Include foods that contain vitamin C
• Venison, red meat, poultry, and lamb intake, and shellfish and fish
• Shellfish and seafood intake
• Avoid or limit high calcium food intake
• Leafy greens like chard, spinach, and kale, are rich in folate and iron
• Vitamin C helps in iron absorption. Good choices comprise strawberries, oranges, and red peppers
• Shellfish and most fish and all meats are rich in heme iron
• Meals rich in calcium such as broccoli, raw milk, cheese, and yoghurt contain calcium, which avoids absorption and links with iron

Conclusion

Writing patient care plans is fundamental to healthcare delivery, ensuring patients get high-quality, individualized, care. By adhering to a systematic evaluation process, intervention planning, assessment, implementation, diagnosis, and goal setting, nurses can write effective patient care plans to generate positive outcomes for patients.

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