Steps in Developing a Family Nursing Care Plan

A family nursing care plan is a set of guidelines developed by a patient’s family and nursing staff. The plan may cover home care and include times and activities a visiting nurse may be required to fulfill. A full-time nurse includes the family by assigning various duties to willing family members. According to RNpedia, a nursing care plan includes realistic goals and clear, specific instructions.
Step 1

Make a list of your concerns before meeting with the nurse. Include problems that you’ve had with your family member in the past as well as ongoing needs you’ve identified. The nursing care plan also should take into consideration future concerns and prepare contingency plans for problems your family foresees in the future.
Step 2

Allow the nurse to make an assessment of the patient, so that the nurse can add appropriate comments when you sit down for the meeting. The nurse is the one who will be reporting back to the patient’s doctors and needs to record accurate medical details and progress reports.
Step 3

Compare notes with the nurse and set priorities. The first draft of a family nursing care plan should include ongoing basic needs, such as feeding, bathing, dressing, physical therapy and medical attention. Decide with the nurse who will perform each task, and set up a timetable.
Step 4

Set mutual goals with the nurse based on realistic expectations. For example, if the family falsely believes that the patient should recover and get back to his previously healthy condition, the nurse could run into problems if the health of the family member deteriorates. Include a doctor’s prognosis of the patient’s condition when setting goals for treatment and care.
Step 5

Include the patient in the planning stages, especially if she is terminal or nearing the end of life. According to the National Institute of Nursing Research, many patients don’t receive the quality of care they prefer because of miscommunication between health care providers and family members.
Tips and Warnings

Keep an open mind when meeting with the nurse. She may have valuable advice and suggestions for how your family can best be involved in the ongoing care of your family member. Home care nurses have experience that family members can take advantage of and should be seriously considered.
A family nursing plan should not be set in concrete. It should remain flexible to change with new health issues, family emergencies and other contingencies that may arise. Make arrangements to review the plan periodically to make appropriate changes, update the plan and keep the lines of communication open between you and the nursing staff.


http://your-nursing-guide.com/category/nursing-care-plan

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