Nursing care planning. Overview and application to the patient in shock

The systematic nursing process is an essential prerequisite for providing effective care for patients in shock. Nurses use assessment skills to identify actual and potential collaborative problems and nursing diagnoses. Once collaborative problems and nursing diagnoses are identified, the nurse develops appropriate individualized patient outcomes and plans care to accomplish the outcomes and resolve the problems. Nursing actions from the three domains may be included in the care plan. The evaluation phase assesses the adequacy of nursing actions in accomplishing the stated goals and returns the process to the stage of assessment. Application of the nursing care planning process to the patient in shock can be somewhat difficult because of the critical nature of the illness, complex assessment data, and rapidly changing interventions. It is indeed a challenge for the critical care nurse to integrate sound principles of nursing care planning into the busy intensive care environment, but the outcome of improved patient care is worth the effort.