The joys of paper work: care plans really can work

For purposes of consistency--and the philosophical belief that nurses must have a standard by which their practice is defined and for which they are accountable on a universally accepted basis--HPBC has elected to use the Nursing diagnoses and their definitions as approved by the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association. The method outline above allows for a standardized plan of care, while the delivery of that care can be personalized to meet the needs of the patient/family and their response to the plan can be monitored by the nurse's documentation. We believe that documentation should reflect the caring aspects as well as the physical aspects of patient care. Based on our involvement with the patient/family, we have found that the development of the care plan provides for ease and accuracy of documentation and for consistency in the provision of care among providers.