Writing Your Care Plan.
Ø A statement of something of concern to the resident or the nursing staff or both.
Ø An actual or possible difficulty/limitation/risk resulting from the resident’s illness or condition, which can be helped, resolved or prevented by nursing intervention.
Ø Medical diagnoses refers to illness, nursing problems focus on the resident’s response to the illness/condition.
Problems arise from diseases/illnesses / conditions that the resident has and how these affect the resident for this domain.
If the resident has no actual or potential problems in this domain, record this under the problem heading.
Goals are statements of what the resident and / or nursing want to achieve.
Goals should be SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and have a timeframe where appropriate.
Goals often fall into one of the following categories:
Ø Maintenance: To maintain the resident at their current level of ability/functioning.
Ø Prevention: To prevent / reduce the likelihood of something happening eg a risk / deterioration in condition/ability etc.
Ø Palliative: To provide / maintain comfort.
Ø Restorative: To restore /improve ability/condition etc.
If the resident has no actual or potential problems in a particular domain, the goal might be to maintain their ability /independence in that domain.
The care plan provides information / instructions on how the resident is cared for on a day to day basis and should include:
Ø What the resident can do.
Ø What assistance, if any the resident needs in this domain.
Ø Likes / dislikes/ preferences relevant to this domain.
Ø Aids / equipment used and how specific to this domain.
Ø Involvement of other healthcare professionals and implications for care.
Ø Specific interventions to be carried out to address problems / risks related to this domain.
Ø Monitoring / observations required.
Remember, even, if the resident has no actual or potential problems in a particular domain, there may be information that staff need to know about any preferences, abilities etc. as and if relevant to the domain.
If the information is already recorded in another domain, there is no need to duplicate, just refer the reader to the other domain(s).
Example.
Example of Problem: Mary is incontinent during the day because she is unable to communicate her need to go to the toilet and is unable to go to the toilet on her own because of her cognitive impairment and CVA.
Goals: To reduce Mary’s episodes of incontinence during the day.
Care Plan Prompts
Eithne’s tip: If nocturnal polyuria is present, review the resident’s caffeine and fluid intake in the evening and readjust as appropriate. Liaise with the resident’s GP. (Nocturnal polyuria is present when the total 24 hour urine volume is normal but the total volume of night time voiding and the first void of the morning is greater than 33% of the total 24 hour fluid volume in older adults).