The Complete Care Plan Manual for Long-Term Care (revised edition), Connie S. March, Chicago: American Hospital Publishing, Inc., 1997. 103 pages, $ 40.00.
This book was designed to give health care professionals working in long-term care facilities a succinct, user-friendly tool to develop resident care plans. Care plans developed from this resource are meant to meet the demands of resident's care needs as well as the requirements of regulatory agencies. The book is generic enough to assist those working outside of residential health care, such as those in home care and other community-based programs.
Professionals in acute care settings may glean ideas for care plan construction. The manual is a spiral-bound, soft cover resource that is reasonably priced considering the number of care plans that may be derived from it.
The book has 18 chapters covering topics ranging from cognitive loss to activities of daily living (ADL) function and from urinary incontinence to nutritional status. Each chapter addresses a problem common to those living in long-term care facilities. A definition is offered for each problem along with North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA)-approved diagnoses and further breakdown options for the problem. The appendix includes a full listing of NANDA diagnoses from the 1994 NANDA conference. The manual lists possible etiologies and measurable, attainable goal statements followed by applicable interventions to meet these goals. Also included is a case study and sample care plan along with suggestions to save time, streamline, avoid rewrites, etc.
The author strives to stimulate the health care team's thought process with the provision of useable options, with no intent to lock the team members in to a premade care plan. Instead, the examples are to be used to help the health care team build a comprehensive, individualized, functional plan that can actually direct and influence care.
Although it is difficult to find areas of weakness with this manual, two areas raise some questions. The first question is whether care plans including only the resident's most crucial problems would be satisfactory to auditors. The second question is whether it is realistic to believe that health care professionals will take the time to complete preconference Care Plan Worksheets (p. xiv). Although good in theory, these reproducible worksheets may or may not be used in the average facility.
"Using This Care Plan Manual" (p. xi) outlines in a straightforward manner the method to best use this book. Ms. March directs the reader through in a step-by-step fashion-certainly invaluable to the "green" practitioner and refreshing to the seasoned one. One can easily imagine the hours saved by this style of care plan construction, especially in not having to "reinvent the wheel." This book evaluates outcomes and provides a list of questions to pose to the interdisciplinary team if a goal has not been met. Because evaluation of care plans is an important but often overlooked process, questions are used to stimulate staff into finding deficiencies and making corrective modifications. The manual includes problems and interventions from multidisciplinary viewpoints; the format is comprehensive and easy to use.