Hey there, friend, Christina here with nursingschoolofsuccess.com and this video is all
about how to write nursing school care plans. So if you're confused on how to write great
care plans in nursing school, or it's taking you a gazillion hours to write them, then
this video is for you, because I am going to walk you through 3 tips to help you ace
your nursing school care plans.
So care plans are one of those things that you just cannot avoid in nursing school, you
will write them pretty much every day of your life. And the earlier you figure out how to
write care plans the better off you'll be because you will save so much time stressing
about them in nursing school. So in this video we're going to go through 3 tips to help you
write amazing care plans in nursing school. Care Plan tip #1: the related to is just about
always related to the pathophysiology of what's happening with the disorder. so when you're
coming up with your related to factors you have to be thinking of the pathophysiology
of what's going on with your patient. It all starts with the pathophysiology, so I get
super excited about this, because you KNOW how much I love patho. So let's say for example
you have a patient with type 2 diabetes, the related to factor or the (r / t) could be
something like inadequate insulin production or insulin resistance because those two things
have to do with the underlying pathophysiology of what's happening with the disorder. So
here's where we go back around to how to study med-surg, it is so important that you understand
the pathophysiology first before you can learn everything else. And if you need a refresher
on how to study med-surg definitely check out the video we have on that because I dive
deeper into this concept and how you can actually save a ton of time studying by simply understanding
the pathophysiology of the disorders you're learning about first.
So that is tip number one: the related to part of your nursing school care plan should
be pathophysiology related so the "related to" is related to the pathophysiology of the
disorder. Now tip number 2 for writing amazing care
plans in nursing school is that the goals that you create for your care plan must be
patient specific. And here are two things that you must make sure are part of your goals:
the first is that they are about the patient: they're written as what the patient will do.
So your care plan goals should be written as "the patient will...," And the second thing
your nursing school care plan goals must have is they must be what we call smart goals SMART.
SMART is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time
bound. So let's talk a little bit about these. When
you are writing goals for your patient, you must make sure that they are written as "the
patient will" not "the nurse will" so these are patient goals, what will the patient do?
what will the patient achieve? not, what the nurse will do. so they're not written as"the
nurse will", no, goals are written as what the patient will do.
And second they need to be SMART, specific measurable achievable relevantc and time-bound.
so this smart acronym means that the goals you are setting for your patient can be measured,
so you know when they achieved them, that they are relevent for that specific patient,
and that they're achievable or realistic for that specific patient. So you're not picking
a random goal out of nowhere. But you're intentionally choosing a goal that aligns with what your
patient wants to achieve, and is in the best interest of their health. And of course these
goals need to be time-bound so anytime you create a goal for your patient remember we're
going to start with "the patient will...", And then you'll close with "by this date at
this time". So for example I could create a goal that says the patient will walk 10
feet from the bed to the bathroom and back 3 times by 1700 tomorrow. That goal is specific:
I tell you exactly what the patient is going to go, it's measurable because there's a number
to it I can actually track OK the patient did in fact walk 10 feet or they didn't, and
for the sake of the example, we'll just say it's realistic for our pretend patient and
it's time bound I put a time on it so by tomorrow they're going to be able to do this. so that
is the Smart goal framework and that's how you'll structure your goals in your nursing
care plans: start with "the patient will..." and then end with a Time.
And then finally, tip number 3 for writing awesome nursing school care plans is to make
sure that the nursing interventions that you create are what you, the nursing student will
do. So our patient goals before were what the patient will do but now these nursing
interventions are what you as the nursing student will do. So you are nursing interventions
should be written as "the nurse will...." or "the nursing student will..." So for example
a nursing intervention could be written as "the nurse will assess the patient's lung
sounds every 4 hours and document appropriately." Or "the nurse will accurately record urine
output every 2 hours." these interventions are written as what you the nursing student
will do so our goals from before our what the patient will do but these nursing interventions
are all about you what the nurse will do. and those are your three tips and really the
three common mistakes I see a lot of nursing students make with their nursing school care
plans: make sure that the related to factor is related to the pathophysiology of the disorder,
make sure the patient goals are written as what the patient will do and make sure that
they are smart goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound, and make
sure that the nursing interventions are written as what the nurse will do.
If you need more help with nursing school care plans, of course, I've got you covered.
We have an entire care plan course inside of the NursingSOS Membership Community, where
I literally walk you through step-by-step how to write a full nursing diagnosis, patient
goals, and nursing interventions. Plus, there's tons of example care plans in there for you
to get ideas from as well. So if you are sick of getting bad grades on your care plans,
or they're taking you more than a half hour to write, you really need to get into this
course. It will help you get better grades on your nursing school care plans, and save
you a ton of time in the process. You're going to wish you joined sooner.
And as always, girlfriend, thank you so much for being here and supporting everything we
do here on the nursing school show. Now go become the nurse that God created only YOU
to be. I'll catch you in the next video, take care.