[Is the health care plan pertinent?]

The author presents them as one of a number communication tools available to nurses. For many nurses, care plans pose a problem--for various reasons. While the majority of Quebec short term care hospitals are receiving recommendations to improve part or all of their nursing care plans, the American Commission is revising standards identifying care plans as optional. Should they be mandatory? The author maintains that the debate surrounding their use be refocussed so that they don't become more important than the function for which they were initially intended. Given that they were developed to achieve specific goals, their importance is secondary to nursing unit goals. This point is illustrated through the use of a table showing the relative importance of nursing care plans within a unit. The author describes nursing care plans as part of the overall nursing process, as well as a single element within an information system. He maintains that the entire nursing information system, not just nursing care plan, needs to be reviewed. He concludes that nursing care plans are appropriate as long as they correspond to a real need and are perceived as necessary. If the opposite is true, then their use should be reconsidered.