Are you struggling with how to write care plans in nursing school?
Writing nursing care plans is one of the first things you’ll learn about in nursing school. They are super important when taking care of patients, because it outlines everything that needs to happen to help them get better.
In this video, I’ll walk you through one of the most important things to do when writing care plans in nursing school.
Here’s what we’ll talk about:
1. How to WOW your instructors with your nursing care plans
2. The 2 principles you MUST follow when prioritizing your nursing diagnosis
3. What you should AVOID when prioritizing your nursing diagnosis
I also have some FREE CARE PLANS to give to you. You can download them here.
If you’re struggling with how to write care plans in nursing school, than this nursing care plan tutorial is for you! 🙂
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
There is ONE thing that you’ve GOTTA do if you want to get A’s on your nursing school care plans. I’ll tell you what that is, and how to do it in this video. And make sure to stay until the end of the video, because I have something SUPER special to give to you. 🙂
Hey there friend, Christina here with nursingsos.com, here to help you raise your grades while also having more free time in nursing school.
Now, I often have students tell me, “Man, Christina, I wish you were my instructor in nursing school!”
Let me just tell you: no you don’t. I would be your worst nightmare. I would be a super harsh grader, not because I don’t love you, but because I expect you to be the best. That’s probably why our NursingSOS Membership Community is so amazing, because it’s packed with videos to help you be the BEST nurse ever. I don’t want you to settle for anything less than the BEST, so that’s what I expect from you.
And let me just tell you, I would be the TOUGHEST grader on care plans. Because they are so important. Nursing school care plans are literally where you tell the world: here’s the exact things I would do to this patient. So it better be stinking good. You better know what you’re doing.
And the BEST way to prove to your professors that you know what your doing, is to correctly PRIORITIZE your nursing diagnoses.
You HAVE to do this right, my friend!
Do you know how many times I’ve had nursing students say, “Welllll…I think that “risk for falls” is the best nursing diagnosis for them.” Okay, first off. Everyone knows “risk for falls” is the most overused nursing diagnosis EVER. Including your instructors, so you’re not woo-ing anyone with that one.
Secondly, if you come and tell me you think a “Risk for” nursing diagnosis is their number one priority, I am going to challenge you to dig a little deeper my friend.
If you have a patient in the hospital, unless they are 110% recovered and ready to dance out of there, a “risk for” diagnosis should not be your number one priority.
So, how do you properly prioritize your nursing diagnoses?
Here are 2 principles you should use to prioritize your nursing care and your nursing care plans: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the ABCs.
If you want a deep dive into each of these, all of those links are down below in the description for you to check them out.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs gives you an outline, in order, of what’s most important to your patient: that list (in order) is physiological needs (like breathing and having their blood circulating), safety needs (making sure their environment is safe), love and belonging needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs. This shows you that you need to take care of their physiological and safety needs first, BEFORE you move onto the other 3.
The same goes for the ABCs. This stands for airway, breathing and circulation. You’ve gotta make sure your patient’s airway is clear, that they are breathing, and that their blood is circulating before you move onto anything else.Â
So when you’re coming up with your nursing diagnosis for your nursing care plan, you need to make sure it addresses and solves these baseline needs, before you move onto something else, like a “risk for” nursing diagnosis. Obviously, if your patient has compromised oxygenation (like during COPD), their kidneys aren’t being perfused (as can happen during heart failure), or they have fluid and electrolyte imbalances (like during DKA), you’ll want to solve that FIRST before you move onto issues that they’re just “at risk for” but haven’t happened yet.
That’s why this is SUPER important to do with your care plans. You need to show your professor that you know what you’re doing, and one of the BEST ways to do that is to prioritize your nursing diagnoses correctly.
If you’re struggling with care plans in nursing school, do not miss out on joining the NursingSOS Membership Community, where we have a full step-by-step care plan course to walk you through how to write them. PLUS, we have a whole care plan database for you to get ideas from. The link is in the description for you to check out the details.
And speaking of that care plan database…I have some FREE care plans to give to you today. There’s a link in the description for you to download them. And of course, make sure you subscribe to this channel and click the notification bell so you never miss a video.
Now click on the next video in this series to help you ROCK your nursing school care plans. And go become the nurse that God created only YOU to be. I’ll see you in the next video.
