Nursing care plans are the cornerstone of effective patient care. Creating the best nursing care plan requires a systematic approach, ensuring all necessary components are accurately addressed. This guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough for developing robust care plans, offering a comprehensive database of nursing care plan (NCP) and nursing diagnosis examples for nursing students and professionals – all readily accessible and free. We will explore care plan components, objectives, purposes, and provide a detailed guide to writing excellent nursing care plans, including templates for practical application.
Table of Contents
- What is a Nursing Care Plan?
- Types of Nursing Care Plans
- Objectives of Nursing Care Plans
- Purposes of Nursing Care Plans
- Key Components of a Nursing Care Plan
- Nursing Care Plan Formats
- Step-by-Step Guide: Writing a Nursing Care Plan
- Step 1: Data Collection or Assessment
- Step 2: Data Analysis and Organization
- Step 3: Formulating Nursing Diagnoses
- Step 4: Setting Priorities
- Step 5: Establishing Client Goals and Desired Outcomes
- Step 6: Selecting Nursing Interventions
- Step 7: Providing Rationale
- Step 8: Evaluation
- Step 9: Documentation
- Comprehensive Nursing Care Plan List
- Basic Nursing and General Care Plans
- Surgery and Perioperative Care Plans
- Cardiac Care Plans
- Endocrine and Metabolic Care Plans
- Gastrointestinal Care Plans
- Hematologic and Lymphatic Care Plans
- Infectious Diseases Care Plans
- Integumentary Care Plans
- Maternal and Newborn Care Plans
- Mental Health and Psychiatric Care Plans
- Musculoskeletal Care Plans
- Neurological Care Plans
- Ophthalmic Care Plans
- Pediatric Nursing Care Plans
- Reproductive Care Plans
- Respiratory Care Plans
- Urinary Care Plans
- Recommended Resources
- References and Sources
What is a Nursing Care Plan?
A nursing care plan (NCP) is a structured, formal process that nurses use to identify a patient’s healthcare needs—both current and potential. It serves as a vital communication tool among nurses, patients, and the broader healthcare team, ensuring everyone is aligned in achieving specific health outcomes. Without a robust nursing care planning process, the consistency and quality of patient care would significantly diminish. The nursing care plan is intrinsically linked to the nursing diagnosis, which forms the basis for the entire plan.
The process of nursing care planning begins at patient admission and is a dynamic, ongoing activity. It is continuously updated to reflect changes in the patient’s condition and to evaluate progress towards established goals. This individualized, patient-centered approach is fundamental to excellent nursing practice, ensuring that care is tailored to the unique needs of each patient.
Types of Nursing Care Plans
Nursing care plans can be broadly categorized as informal or formal, and further subdivided based on their level of customization.
- Informal Nursing Care Plans: These are mental strategies, existing in the nurse’s mind as a plan of action. While useful for experienced nurses, they lack the documented consistency and communication benefits of formal plans.
- Formal Nursing Care Plans: These are documented, written or computerized guides that systematically organize patient care information. Formal plans ensure consistent communication and serve as a reference for all healthcare providers involved in the patient’s care.
Formal care plans are further divided into standardized and individualized types:
- Standardized Care Plans: These are pre-written plans detailing nursing care for patients with common, recurring needs. They ensure a baseline level of consistent care for typical conditions and improve efficiency by eliminating the need to create common care activities repeatedly. Standardized plans are a starting point and are often adapted to create individualized plans.
- Individualized Care Plans: Tailored to meet a specific patient’s unique needs, these plans adapt standardized plans with specific approaches proven effective for the individual. They provide a personalized and holistic approach, better suited to a patient’s unique strengths, needs, and goals. Individualized plans are crucial for addressing the complexities of patient care and ensuring patient satisfaction.
Standardized Care Plans
Standardized care plans are essential tools developed by nursing staff and healthcare organizations to guarantee consistent care for patients with specific conditions. These plans establish minimum acceptable care standards and optimize nurses’ time by pre-defining common, repetitive activities.
It’s important to note that standardized care plans are not designed to address a patient’s unique needs and goals directly. Instead, they serve as an effective foundation for developing a more personalized, individualized care plan.
The care plans listed in this guide are primarily standardized care plans, intended as frameworks or starting points for creating individualized plans.
Individualized Care Plans
An individualized care plan involves customizing a standardized care plan to align with the specific needs and goals of each patient. This customization utilizes approaches known to be effective for that particular individual. This method allows for more personalized and holistic care, better addressing the patient’s unique circumstances, strengths, and objectives.
Individualized care plans are also instrumental in enhancing patient satisfaction. When patients perceive their care as specifically tailored to their needs, they feel more valued and understood, resulting in higher satisfaction levels. In today’s patient-centric healthcare landscape, patient satisfaction is a critical measure of care quality.
Tips for Individualizing a Nursing Care Plan:
- Detailed Assessment: Conduct a thorough initial and ongoing assessment to capture the patient’s unique physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and cultural needs.
- Patient Involvement: Actively involve the patient and their family in the care planning process. Their input is crucial for understanding their preferences and goals.
- Specific Goals: Develop SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound) that reflect the patient’s individual needs and desired outcomes, not just generic objectives.
- Tailored Interventions: Select nursing interventions that are specifically chosen to address the patient’s unique nursing diagnoses and circumstances. Adapt standardized interventions as needed.
- Cultural Sensitivity: Incorporate the patient’s cultural background, beliefs, and practices into the care plan.
- Continuous Evaluation: Regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the care plan and adjust interventions based on the patient’s response and evolving needs.
Objectives of Nursing Care Plans
Writing a nursing care plan serves several critical objectives in enhancing healthcare delivery:
- Promote Evidence-Based Care: Nursing care plans facilitate the delivery of care that is rooted in current best practices and research, ensuring patients receive the most effective treatments in comfortable and familiar healthcare settings.
- Support Holistic Care: By addressing the patient’s physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions, care plans ensure a holistic approach to managing and preventing disease, treating the whole person, not just the illness.
- Establish Care Programs: Nursing care plans are essential in developing structured care programs like care pathways and care bundles. Care pathways ensure team consensus on care standards and expected outcomes, while care bundles standardize best practices for specific conditions.
- Define Goals and Outcomes: Care plans clearly differentiate between broad goals and specific, measurable expected outcomes, providing a clear roadmap for patient recovery and progress.
- Enhance Communication and Documentation: Care plans improve communication among healthcare team members and provide a structured format for documenting patient care, ensuring continuity and accountability.
- Measure Nursing Care Effectiveness: By outlining specific interventions and expected outcomes, care plans provide a framework for evaluating the effectiveness of nursing care and making necessary adjustments to improve patient outcomes.
Purposes of a Nursing Care Plan
Nursing care plans are vital for defining the nurse’s role and ensuring high-quality patient care. The key purposes of a nursing care plan include:
- Defining the Nurse’s Role: Care plans highlight the distinct and independent role nurses play in patient care, focusing on overall health and well-being, beyond just following physician orders. They emphasize the nurse’s autonomous function in patient care management.
- Providing Direction for Individualized Patient Care: A care plan acts as a detailed roadmap, guiding nurses in delivering care tailored to each patient’s unique needs. It encourages critical thinking in developing interventions specific to the individual, based on their nursing diagnoses.
- Ensuring Continuity of Care: Care plans enable consistent, high-quality care across different nursing shifts and departments. By providing a shared reference, they ensure all nurses deliver the same type and quality of interventions, maximizing treatment benefits for patients.
- Coordinating Care: Care plans ensure that all members of the healthcare team are informed about the patient’s needs and the necessary actions. This coordinated approach prevents gaps in care and ensures a unified approach to patient treatment.
- Facilitating Accurate Documentation: Care plans specify what observations to record, which nursing actions to implement, and what instructions the patient and family require. Proper documentation in the care plan serves as evidence that care was provided. Undocumented care is essentially care not given in a legal and professional context.
- Guiding Staff Assignments: In situations where patients require specialized care, care plans help in assigning staff with the necessary skills and expertise, optimizing resource allocation and patient safety.
- Monitoring Patient Progress: Care plans provide a framework to track a patient’s progress systematically. This monitoring allows for timely adjustments to the care plan in response to changes in health status or goals, ensuring dynamic and responsive care.
- Supporting Reimbursement: Insurance companies often use medical records, including care plans, to determine coverage and reimbursement for hospital care. Well-documented care plans justify the medical necessity and scope of provided services.
- Defining Patient Goals and Promoting Engagement: Care plans involve patients in their treatment, clarifying their goals and fostering active participation in their care process. This collaboration enhances patient understanding and commitment to their health journey.
Key Components of a Nursing Care Plan
A comprehensive nursing care plan (NCP) typically includes several essential components, all stemming from a well-defined nursing diagnosis. These components work together to guide patient care and ensure effective treatment. The core components are:
- Nursing Diagnoses: These are clinical judgments about individual, family, or community experiences/responses to actual or potential health problems/life processes. Nursing diagnoses provide the basis for selecting nursing interventions to achieve outcomes for which the nurse has accountability.
- Client Problems (Optional): Some care plans may also list client problems, which are broader issues the patient is facing. These can sometimes be used interchangeably with nursing diagnoses or to provide additional context.
- Expected Outcomes: These are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that define the desired changes in patient health status as a result of nursing care. They are derived from the nursing diagnoses and guide the selection of interventions.
- Nursing Interventions: These are the actions that nurses will perform to achieve the expected outcomes. Interventions should be evidence-based, patient-centered, and tailored to address the identified nursing diagnoses.
- Rationales: These are the scientific reasons or evidence that support the chosen nursing interventions. Rationales explain why specific interventions are expected to be effective in achieving the desired outcomes and are particularly important in student care plans to demonstrate understanding.
- Evaluation: This component outlines how the effectiveness of the nursing care plan will be assessed. Evaluation involves measuring the patient’s progress towards achieving the expected outcomes and determining whether the interventions were successful. Based on the evaluation, the care plan may be continued, revised, or discontinued.
Nursing Care Plan Formats
Nursing care plans can be organized in various formats, commonly structured into columns to clearly present the different components. The most common formats are three-column and four-column plans, with variations to suit specific needs or institutional standards.
Three-Column Format
The three-column format is a streamlined approach, typically including:
- Nursing Diagnosis: Clearly stated nursing diagnosis, often prioritized.
- Outcomes and Evaluation: Combined column for desired patient outcomes and evaluation criteria. This integrates the expected results with the assessment of goal achievement.
- Interventions: Nursing actions planned to achieve the outcomes.
Three-column nursing care plan format example.
Four-Column Format
The four-column format provides a more detailed structure and is widely used in healthcare settings and nursing education. It typically includes:
- Nursing Diagnosis: Specific nursing diagnosis, as with the three-column format.
- Goals and Outcomes: Separates goals (broad statements of desired change) and specific, measurable outcomes.
- Interventions: Detailed nursing actions to achieve goals and outcomes.
- Evaluation: A dedicated column for evaluating the effectiveness of interventions and patient progress toward outcomes.
Four-column nursing care plan template example.
Downloadable Templates: For practical application, sample templates for various nursing care plan formats are available for download and customization:
Download: Printable Nursing Care Plan Templates and Formats
Student Care Plans
Student care plans are distinct from those used by practicing nurses. They are designed as learning tools and are therefore more detailed and comprehensive. They serve as a crucial educational activity for nursing students, helping them develop critical thinking and care planning skills.
Student nursing care plans often include a rationale column and are more detailed for learning purposes.
Key features of student care plans include:
- Handwritten Format: Often required to be handwritten to reinforce the learning process and encourage thoroughness.
- Rationale Column: An additional column is included for “Rationale” or “Scientific Explanation.” This requires students to provide the scientific principles justifying each nursing intervention, linking theory to practice.
- Detailed Information: Student care plans typically include more extensive patient assessment data, more detailed nursing diagnoses, and elaborately described interventions compared to working nurse care plans.
Step-by-Step Guide: Writing a Nursing Care Plan
Creating an effective nursing care plan involves a systematic, step-by-step process. By following these steps, nurses can develop comprehensive plans that address patient needs and promote positive health outcomes.
Step 1: Data Collection or Assessment
The first critical step in writing a nursing care plan is thorough data collection and patient assessment. This involves creating a comprehensive patient database using various assessment techniques and data collection methods. These methods include:
- Physical Assessment: A systematic examination of the patient’s body, from head to toe, to identify physical health problems.
- Health History: Gathering information about the patient’s past and present health conditions, including medical history, surgical history, allergies, and current medications.
- Patient Interview: Direct communication with the patient to gather subjective data about their symptoms, feelings, values, and lifestyle.
- Medical Records Review: Examining the patient’s medical chart for physician’s orders, diagnostic test results, and notes from other healthcare providers.
- Diagnostic Studies: Reviewing results from laboratory tests, imaging studies, and other diagnostic procedures.
The patient database compiles all collected health information. This step is crucial for identifying related or risk factors and defining characteristics that will be used to formulate accurate nursing diagnoses. Many healthcare facilities or nursing schools provide specific assessment formats to guide this process.
Critical thinking is paramount in patient assessment. It involves integrating knowledge from various scientific disciplines and professional guidelines to inform clinical judgments. This process is fundamental for complex clinical decision-making and aims to effectively identify patient healthcare needs within a supportive environment with reliable information.
Step 2: Data Analysis and Organization
Once comprehensive patient data is collected, the next step is data analysis and organization. This involves:
- Analyzing Data: Carefully reviewing the collected data to identify significant patterns, trends, and abnormalities.
- Clustering Data: Grouping related data points together to identify potential health problems. This clustering helps in recognizing patterns and making connections between different pieces of information.
- Organizing Data: Structuring the analyzed and clustered data logically. This organization helps in formulating nursing diagnoses, setting priorities, and defining desired outcomes.
This step essentially transforms raw data into meaningful information that can be used to develop a targeted nursing care plan.
Step 3: Formulating Nursing Diagnoses
Nursing diagnoses are standardized statements that describe a patient’s health problems that nurses can legally and independently address. They are a uniform way of identifying and focusing on specific patient needs and responses to actual and potential health issues. These diagnoses are distinct from medical diagnoses, which describe diseases or pathologies that physicians treat. Nursing diagnoses focus on the patient’s response to illness or health conditions.
Nursing diagnoses should be:
- Based on Assessment Data: Directly derived from the data collected during patient assessment.
- Clear and Concise: Written using standardized nursing diagnosis terminology (e.g., NANDA-I).
- Patient-Centered: Focused on the patient’s individual needs and responses.
For a detailed guide on formulating nursing diagnoses, refer to: Nursing Diagnosis (NDx): Complete Guide and List.
Step 4: Setting Priorities
Setting priorities involves ranking nursing diagnoses in order of importance. This step is crucial for organizing care and addressing the most critical patient needs first. Prioritization ensures that nursing efforts are directed where they are most needed and can have the greatest impact on patient outcomes.
Priorities are typically categorized as:
- High Priority: Life-threatening problems or those that could cause harm to the patient if left untreated. These diagnoses require immediate attention.
- Medium Priority: Problems that are not immediately life-threatening but could cause significant discomfort or complications if not addressed in a timely manner.
- Low Priority: Problems that are related to the patient’s long-term health needs or coping abilities. These can be addressed after high and medium priority needs are met.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs provides a useful framework for setting priorities. This hierarchy ranks human needs from basic physiological needs to self-actualization needs. In nursing, physiological and safety needs are typically given the highest priority.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Nursing:
- Physiological Needs: These are the most fundamental needs for survival, such as airway, breathing, circulation (ABCs), nutrition, fluids, elimination, sleep, and pain relief.
- Safety and Security Needs: These include physical and emotional safety, security, stability, and protection from harm. In healthcare, this involves preventing falls, infections, and ensuring a safe environment.
- Love and Belonging Needs: These relate to social connection, intimacy, love, and belonging to a group. In nursing, this involves fostering supportive relationships and addressing social isolation.
- Self-Esteem Needs: These include the need for self-respect, confidence, achievement, and recognition. Nursing interventions can promote self-esteem by acknowledging patient strengths and involving them in care decisions.
- Self-Actualization Needs: This is the highest level of need, involving personal growth, fulfillment, and reaching one’s full potential. While less directly addressed in acute care, nurses can support self-actualization by empowering patients and encouraging their goals.
Virginia Henderson’s 14 Needs applied to Maslow’s Hierarchy, providing a framework for prioritizing patient needs. Learn more about Virginia Henderson’s Need Theory here.
When setting priorities, nurses must also consider patient values, beliefs, available resources, and the urgency of the situation. Patient involvement in this process is crucial for enhancing cooperation and ensuring that the care plan aligns with their preferences.
Step 5: Establishing Client Goals and Desired Outcomes
Once priorities are set for nursing diagnoses, the next step is to establish patient goals and desired outcomes. Goals are broad statements describing the intended changes in patient health status. Desired outcomes are specific, measurable criteria that indicate goal achievement.
Goals and desired outcomes serve several important purposes:
- Provide Direction: They guide the planning of nursing interventions, ensuring that actions are focused on achieving specific results.
- Serve as Evaluation Criteria: They provide measurable benchmarks for evaluating patient progress and the effectiveness of the care plan.
- Enable Problem Resolution Assessment: They help determine when a problem has been resolved, indicating when interventions may be modified or discontinued.
- Motivate Patient and Nurse: Achieving goals provides a sense of accomplishment and motivates both the patient and the nursing team to continue working towards health improvement.
Examples of well-written goals and desired outcomes for nursing care plans.
Goals should be SMART:
- Specific: Clearly defined and focused.
- Measurable: Quantifiable and able to be tracked.
- Attainable: Realistic and achievable for the patient.
- Relevant: Meaningful and important to the patient’s needs and goals.
- Time-bound: Include a timeframe for achievement.
Goals can be categorized as short-term or long-term:
- Short-Term Goals: Achievable within a short period, such as hours or days, often focused on immediate needs in acute care settings.
- Long-Term Goals: Achievable over a longer period, such as weeks or months, typically used for patients with chronic conditions or in long-term care settings.
Components of Goals and Desired Outcomes:
Well-written goal statements typically include four components:
- Subject: The patient or a specific part of the patient. Often implied as “client” unless referring to family or other individuals.
- Verb: Describes the action the patient will perform (e.g., demonstrate, verbalize, maintain, improve).
- Conditions or Modifiers: Clarifies the circumstances under which the behavior will occur (e.g., “after teaching,” “using crutches,” “during hospitalization”).
- Criterion of Desired Performance: Specifies the standard for evaluating performance (e.g., “demonstrates correct technique,” “verbalizes understanding,” “maintains stable vital signs”). This is often optional but enhances measurability.
Key components to include when writing effective goals and desired outcomes in a nursing care plan.
Tips for Writing Goals and Desired Outcomes:
- Focus on Patient Responses: Write goals in terms of what the patient will do or achieve, not what the nurse will do. Start with “Client will…”
- Client-Centered Focus: Ensure goals reflect patient actions, not nurse activities. Avoid goals like “Nurse will educate patient” and instead use “Client will verbalize understanding…”
- Use Observable and Measurable Terms: Use concrete, measurable verbs and avoid vague terms that are open to interpretation.
- Realistic Outcomes: Ensure outcomes are achievable given the patient’s resources, limitations, and the timeframe of care.
- Therapy Compatibility: Goals should align with other therapies the patient is receiving from other healthcare professionals.
- Single Diagnosis per Goal: Each goal should be derived from only one nursing diagnosis for clear evaluation and intervention planning.
- Patient Valued Goals: Involve the patient in goal setting to ensure the goals are important to them, increasing their cooperation and motivation.
Step 6: Selecting Nursing Interventions
Nursing interventions are the specific actions nurses take to help patients achieve their goals and desired outcomes. These interventions are selected based on the nursing diagnoses and are designed to address the factors contributing to the patient’s health problems. Interventions are planned during the planning phase of the nursing process but are implemented during the implementation phase.
Nursing interventions should:
- Be Safe and Appropriate: Suitable for the patient’s age, health condition, and overall status.
- Be Achievable: Realistic with available resources and time constraints.
- Align with Patient Values: Respect the patient’s cultural, ethical, and personal beliefs.
- Be Compatible with Other Therapies: Integrate and coordinate with other treatments the patient is receiving.
- Be Evidence-Based: Based on nursing knowledge, research, and relevant scientific principles.
Types of Nursing Interventions
Nursing interventions can be classified into three types:
Three main types of nursing interventions: independent, dependent, and collaborative.
-
Independent Nursing Interventions: Actions that nurses are licensed to initiate based on their professional judgment and skills. These include:
- Ongoing Assessment: Continuously monitoring patient status and collecting data.
- Emotional Support: Providing reassurance, empathy, and psychological comfort.
- Comfort Measures: Implementing strategies to enhance patient comfort and well-being.
- Patient Education: Teaching patients about their health condition, treatment, and self-care.
- Physical Care: Assisting with activities of daily living (ADLs) and providing direct physical care.
- Referrals: Connecting patients with other healthcare professionals or community resources.
-
Dependent Nursing Interventions: Actions that require a physician’s order or supervision to implement. These include:
- Medication Administration: Giving prescribed medications.
- Intravenous Therapy: Managing IV fluids and medications.
- Diagnostic Tests: Preparing patients for and carrying out ordered diagnostic procedures.
- Treatments: Performing specific medical treatments as ordered.
- Dietary Orders: Implementing prescribed dietary modifications.
- Activity Orders: Guiding patient activity and rest levels as ordered.
- Assessment and Explanation: Nurses also play a role in assessing the patient’s response to medical orders and explaining these orders to the patient.
-
Collaborative Interventions: Actions that require consultation and coordination with other healthcare team members, such as physicians, therapists, social workers, and dietitians. These interventions are developed in collaboration to leverage the expertise of various disciplines and provide comprehensive patient care.
Tips for Writing Nursing Interventions:
- Date and Sign: Date the care plan when written and sign it to indicate accountability and track when the plan was initiated.
- Specific and Clear: Interventions should be specific, clearly stated, and start with an action verb describing what the nurse will do. Include details on how, when, where, how often, and how much. For example: “Educate parents on how to accurately measure temperature every 4 hours and when to notify the healthcare provider of changes.”
- Use Standard Abbreviations: Only use abbreviations approved by the healthcare institution to ensure clarity and avoid misunderstandings.
Step 7: Providing Rationale
Rationales, or scientific explanations, are essential for student care plans. They explain the scientific basis for each nursing intervention, linking the intervention to the expected outcome. Rationales demonstrate the student’s understanding of the underlying principles of care.
Example showing nursing interventions paired with their scientific rationales in a care plan.
Rationales typically include:
- Physiological Principles: Explanations based on anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology.
- Psychological Principles: Explanations based on psychological theories and principles.
- Evidence-Based Practice: References to research or clinical guidelines supporting the intervention’s effectiveness.
While rationales are not always included in care plans used by practicing nurses, they are a valuable learning tool for students, helping them connect theory to practice.
Step 8: Evaluation
Evaluation is the final step in the nursing process and a crucial part of care planning. It is a planned, ongoing process of assessing the patient’s progress toward achieving the established goals and desired outcomes and evaluating the effectiveness of the nursing care plan.
Evaluation involves:
- Measuring Goal Achievement: Assessing the patient’s status to determine if the desired outcomes have been met. This involves collecting data related to the outcome criteria.
- Analyzing Outcome Achievement: Comparing the collected data to the desired outcomes to determine the degree of goal attainment.
- Drawing Conclusions: Based on the analysis, concluding whether the care plan was effective, partially effective, or ineffective.
- Modifying the Care Plan: If goals were not met or only partially met, revising the care plan. This may involve changing interventions, modifying goals, or reassessing the nursing diagnoses. If goals were met, the care for that specific diagnosis may be discontinued.
Evaluation is a continuous process, allowing nurses to dynamically adjust care plans to ensure they remain effective and patient-centered. It completes the feedback loop of the nursing process, ensuring ongoing improvement in patient care.
Step 9: Documentation
The final step in creating a nursing care plan is documentation. The completed care plan becomes part of the patient’s permanent medical record, according to hospital policy. Accurate and thorough documentation is essential for:
- Communication: Providing a written record of the care plan for all healthcare team members.
- Continuity of Care: Ensuring that oncoming nurses and other providers are aware of the patient’s plan of care.
- Legal Record: Documenting the care provided, which is important for legal and regulatory purposes.
- Reimbursement: Supporting billing and reimbursement processes by providing evidence of the care provided.
Different healthcare facilities and nursing programs may have specific formats for documenting care plans. Most formats are designed to systematically guide nurses through the steps of the nursing process. Using a structured format ensures that all essential components are included and that the care plan is clear, comprehensive, and easy to use.
Comprehensive Nursing Care Plan List
This section provides an extensive list of sample nursing care plans (NCPs) and nursing diagnoses for a wide range of diseases and health conditions. These are categorized for easy navigation.
Basic Nursing and General Care Plans
General nursing care plans applicable across various patient populations:
| Basic Nursing & General Care Plans |
|---|
| Acute Confusion (Delirium) and Altered Mental Status |
| Acute Pain and Pain Management |
| Activity Intolerance and Generalized Weakness |
| Cancer (Oncology Nursing) |
| Caregiver Role Strain and Family Caregiver Support Systems |
| Chronic Confusion (Dementia) |
| End-of-Life Care (Hospice Care or Palliative) |
| Fall Risk and Fall Prevention |
| Fatigue and Lethargy |
| Geriatric Nursing (Older Adult) |
| Grieving and Loss |
| Hypothermia and Cold Injuries |
| Hyperthermia (Fever) |
| Impaired Swallowing (Dysphagia) |
| Insomnia and Sleep Deprivation |
| Prolonged Bed Rest |
| Risk for Injury and Patient Safety |
| Self-Care and Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) |
| Surgery (Perioperative Client) |
| Systemic Lupus Erythematosus |
| Total Parenteral Nutrition |
Surgery and Perioperative Care Plans
Care plans focused on patients undergoing surgical procedures:
| Surgery and Perioperative Care Plans |
|---|
| Amputation |
| Appendectomy |
| Cholecystectomy |
| Fracture UPDATED! |
| Hemorrhoids |
| Hysterectomy |
| Ileostomy & Colostomy |
| Laminectomy (Disc Surgery) |
| Mastectomy |
| Subtotal Gastrectomy |
| Surgery (Perioperative Client) |
| Thyroidectomy |
| Total Joint (Knee, Hip) Replacement |
Cardiac Care Plans
Care plans addressing conditions of the cardiovascular system:
| Cardiac Care Plans |
|---|
| Angina Pectoris (Coronary Artery Disease) |
| Cardiac Arrhythmia (Digitalis Toxicity) |
| Cardiac Catheterization |
| Cardiogenic Shock |
| Congenital Heart Disease |
| Decreased Cardiac Output & Cardiac Support |
| Heart Failure UPDATED! |
| Hypertension UPDATED! |
| Hypovolemic Shock |
| Impaired Tissue Perfusion & Ischemia |
| Myocardial Infarction |
| Pacemaker Therapy |
Endocrine and Metabolic Care Plans
Care plans for endocrine and metabolic disorders:
| Endocrine and Metabolic Care Plans |
|---|
| Addison’s Disease |
| Cushing’s Disease |
| Diabetes Mellitus (Type 1, Type 2) UPDATED! |
| Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) and Hyperglycemic Hyperosmolar Nonketotic Syndrome (HHNS) |
| Eating Disorders: Anorexia & Bulimia Nervosa |
| Fluid Volume Deficit (Dehydration & Hypovolemia) |
| Fluid Volume Excess (Hypervolemia) |
| Gestational Diabetes Mellitus |
| Hyperthyroidism |
| Hypothyroidism |
| Imbalanced Nutrition (Malnutrition) |
| Obesity & Overweight |
| Thyroidectomy |
| Unstable Blood Glucose Levels (Hyperglycemia & Hypoglycemia) |
| Acid-Base Imbalances |
|---|
| Metabolic Acidosis |
| Metabolic Alkalosis |
| Respiratory Acidosis |
| Respiratory Alkalosis |
| Electrolyte Imbalances |
|---|
| Calcium (Ca) Imbalances: Hypercalcemia and Hypocalcemia |
| Magnesium (Mg) Imbalances: Hypermagnesemia and Hypomagnesemia |
| Potassium (K) Imbalances: Hyperkalemia and Hypokalemia |
| Sodium (Na) Imbalances: Hypernatremia and Hyponatremia |
Gastrointestinal Care Plans
Care plans for disorders of the digestive system:
| Gastrointestinal Care Plans |
|---|
| Appendectomy |
| Bowel Incontinence (Fecal Incontinence) |
| Cholecystectomy |
| Constipation |
| Diarrhea Nursing Care Plan and Management |
| Cholecystitis and Cholelithiasis |
| Gastroenteritis |
| Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) |
| Hemorrhoids |
| Hepatitis |
| Ileostomy & Colostomy |
| Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) |
| Intussusception |
| Liver Cirrhosis |
| Nausea & Vomiting |
| Pancreatitis |
| Peritonitis |
| Peptic Ulcer Disease |
| Subtotal Gastrectomy |
| Umbilical and Inguinal Hernia |
Hematologic and Lymphatic Care Plans
Care plans for blood and lymphatic system disorders:
| Hematologic & Lymphatic Care Plans |
|---|
| Anaphylactic Shock |
| Anemia UPDATED! |
| Aortic Aneurysm |
| Bleeding Risk & Hemophilia |
| Deep Vein Thrombosis |
| Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation |
| Hemophilia |
| Kawasaki Disease |
| Leukemia |
| Lymphoma |
| Sepsis and Septicemia |
| Sickle Cell Anemia Crisis |
Infectious Diseases Care Plans
Care plans for communicable and infectious diseases:
| Infectious Diseases Care Plans |
|---|
| Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (HIV Positive) |
| Acute Rheumatic Fever |
| Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever |
| Herpes Zoster (Shingles) |
| Influenza (Flu) |
| Pulmonary Tuberculosis |
| Risk for Infection & Infection Control |
Integumentary Care Plans
Care plans for skin and tissue disorders:
| Integumentary Care Plans |
|---|
| Burn Injury |
| Dermatitis |
| Herpes Zoster (Shingles) |
| Pressure Ulcer (Bedsores) |
| Wound Care and Skin/Tissue Integrity |
Maternal and Newborn Care Plans
Care plans for pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn care:
| Maternal and Newborn Care Plans |
|---|
| Abortion (Termination of Pregnancy) |
| Cervical Insufficiency (Premature Dilation of the Cervix) |
| Cesarean Birth |
| Cleft Palate and Cleft Lip |
| Gestational Diabetes Mellitus |
| Hyperbilirubinemia (Jaundice) |
| Labor Stages, Induced, Augmented, Dysfunctional, Precipitous Labor |
| Neonatal Sepsis |
| Perinatal Loss (Miscarriage, Stillbirth) |
| Placental Abruption |
| Placenta Previa |
| Postpartum Hemorrhage |
| Postpartum Thrombophlebitis |
| Prenatal Hemorrhage |
| Preeclampsia and Gestational Hypertension |
| Prenatal Infection |
| Preterm Labor |
| Puerperal & Postpartum Infections |
| Substance (Alcohol and Drug) Abuse in Pregnancy |
Mental Health and Psychiatric Care Plans
Care plans for mental health and psychiatric conditions:
| Mental Health and Psychiatric Care Plans |
|---|
| Alcohol Withdrawal |
| Anxiety & Fear |
| Anxiety and Panic Disorders |
| Bipolar Disorders |
| Body Image Disturbance & Self-Esteem |
| Impaired Thought Processes & Cognitive Impairment |
| Major Depression |
| Personality Disorders |
| Schizophrenia |
| Sexual Assault |
| Substance Dependence and Abuse |
| Suicide Behaviors |
Musculoskeletal Care Plans
Care plans for disorders of the musculoskeletal system:
| Musculoskeletal Care Plans |
|---|
| Amputation |
| Congenital Hip Dysplasia |
| Fracture UPDATED! |
| Impaired Physical Mobility & Immobility |
| Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis |
| Laminectomy (Disc Surgery) |
| Osteoarthritis |
| Osteogenic Sarcoma (Osteosarcoma) |
| Osteoporosis |
| Rheumatoid Arthritis |
| Scoliosis |
| Spinal Cord Injury |
| Total Joint (Knee, Hip) Replacement |
Neurological Care Plans
Care plans for disorders of the nervous system:
| Neurological Care Plans |
|---|
| Alzheimer’s Disease UPDATED! |
| Brain Tumor |
| Cerebral Palsy |
| Cerebrovascular Accident (Stroke) UPDATED! |
| Guillain-Barre Syndrome |
| Meningitis |
| Multiple Sclerosis |
| Parkinson’s Disease |
| Seizure Disorder |
| Spinal Cord Injury |
Ophthalmic Care Plans
Care plans for eye disorders:
| Ophthalmic Care Plans |
|---|
| Cataracts |
| Glaucoma |
| Macular Degeneration |
Pediatric Nursing Care Plans
Care plans for children’s health conditions:
| Pediatric Nursing Care Plans |
|---|
| Child Abuse |
| Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate |
| Dying Child |
| Febrile Seizure |
| Hospitalized Child |
| Hydrocephalus |
| Otitis Media |
| Spina Bifida |
| Tonsillitis and Adenoiditis |
Reproductive Care Plans
Care plans for reproductive and sexual health disorders:
| Reproductive Care Plans |
|---|
| Cryptorchidism (Undescended Testes) |
| Hysterectomy |
| Hypospadias and Epispadias |
| Mastectomy |
| Menopause |
| Prostatectomy |
Respiratory Care Plans
Care plans for disorders of the respiratory system:
| Respiratory Care Plans |
|---|
| Airway Clearance Therapy & Coughing |
| Apnea |
| Asthma UPDATED! |
| Aspiration Risk & Aspiration Pneumonia |
| Bronchiolitis UPDATED! |
| Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) UPDATED! |
| Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) UPDATED! |
| Croup Syndrome |
| Cystic Fibrosis UPDATED! |
| Epiglottitis |
| Hemothorax and Pneumothorax UPDATED! |
| Ineffective Breathing Pattern (Dyspnea) |
| Impairment of Gas Exchange |
| Influenza (Flu) UPDATED! |
| Lung Cancer UPDATED! |
| Mechanical Ventilation |
| Near-Drowning |
| Pleural Effusion |
| Pneumonia |
| Pulmonary Embolism |
| Pulmonary Tuberculosis |
| Tracheostomy |
Urinary Care Plans
Care plans for kidney and urinary system disorders:
| Urinary Care Plans |
|---|
| Acute Glomerulonephritis |
| Acute Renal Failure |
| Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) |
| Chronic Renal Failure |
| Hemodialysis |
| Nephrotic Syndrome |
| Peritoneal Dialysis |
| Urolithiasis (Renal Calculi) |
| Urinary Elimination (Urinary Incontinence & Urinary Retention) |
| Urinary Tract Infection |
| Vesicoureteral Reflux (VUR) |
| Wilms Tumor (Nephroblastoma) |
Recommended Resources
Enhance your understanding of nursing diagnosis and care planning with these recommended books:
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Ackley and Ladwig’s Nursing Diagnosis Handbook: An Evidence-Based Guide to Planning Care
This handbook is highly recommended for its evidence-based approach to nursing interventions. It uses a simple three-step system for client assessment, nursing diagnosis, and care planning. It includes step-by-step guidelines for implementing care and evaluating outcomes, helping you develop diagnostic reasoning and critical thinking skills.
Nursing Care Plans – Nursing Diagnosis & Intervention (10th Edition)
This comprehensive resource features over two hundred care plans based on the latest evidence-based guidelines. This edition includes ICNP diagnoses, care plans for LGBTQ health issues, and electrolytes and acid-base balance.
Nurse’s Pocket Guide: Diagnoses, Prioritized Interventions, and Rationales
A quick and essential reference tool for identifying accurate diagnoses and planning efficient patient care. The 16th edition includes the most recent nursing diagnoses and interventions, with an alphabetized listing covering over 400 disorders.
Nursing Diagnosis Manual: Planning, Individualizing, and Documenting Client Care
This manual helps you identify interventions for planning, individualizing, and documenting care for over 800 diseases and disorders. It provides subjective and objective data, sample clinical applications, prioritized interventions with rationales, and documentation guidelines for each diagnosis.
All-in-One Nursing Care Planning Resource – E-Book: Medical-Surgical, Pediatric, Maternity, and Psychiatric-Mental Health
This resource offers over 100 care plans across medical-surgical, maternity/OB, pediatrics, psychiatric, and mental health nursing. It uses an interprofessional “patient problems” approach to familiarize you with patient-centered communication.
References and Sources
Note: The original article did not list specific references. For a more academic approach, consider adding references to nursing textbooks, journals, or reputable online resources on nursing care planning and nursing diagnoses.
