write an essay that examines a nursing intervention

What Are Nursing Interventions? Definition, Types, and Examples

What are nursing interventions.

• Classifications
• 3 Categories
• 4 Interventions
• Purpose of Nursing Interventions

If you’re interested in nursing as a potential career, you may have heard about nursing interventions and wondered what they are. Keep reading to learn all about nursing interventions, including the 3 categories, 4 types, and 7 domains of nursing interventions. 

Nursing interventions are actions that nurses take to promote health, prevent disease, and help patients heal and recover from illness and injury. 

In other words, interventions are the things that nurses do to care for their patients. Ideally, they’re evidence-based and are aimed at achieving specific outcomes. 

Common nursing interventions include:

• Providing patient education
• Administering medication 
• Maintaining a safe environment

Nurses play an important role in promoting self-care and helping patients to make lifestyle changes that can improve their overall health and well-being. Nursing interventions are tailored to meet the needs of each patient, family, or group and can be modified as the patient’s or family’s needs change.

What is the Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC)?

The Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) is a system that was first published in 1992 as a way to standardize the language and communication of nursing work and “serve as the foundation for (the) nursing process in nursing practice, education, and research”. 

Based on ongoing research, the NIC system provides a comprehensive list of standardized nursing interventions that can be used to address patient care needs, regardless of where they may live.

The most recent 7th edition of the NIC was published in 2018. It contains 565 standardized nursing interventions and over 13,500 nursing activities. 

Along with the Nursing Outcomes Classification system (NOC), the purpose of NIC is to provide standardized terms and nursing language for “…documenting nursing care, communicating nursing care across settings, sharing data across systems, evaluating outcomes, conducting effectiveness research, measuring nursing productivity, evaluating nursing competencies, facilitating reimbursement…determining staffing needs, designing curriculum and for inclusion in big data sets.”

3 Nursing Intervention Categories

Nursing interventions can be classified into three categories: 

• Independent
• Interdependent

Independent Nursing Interventions 

Independent nursing interventions are those that can be carried out by the nurse without seeking input or help from others. For example, administering most medications or changing a dressing. 

Dependent Nursing Interventions

Dependent nursing interventions are those that require the help or supervision of another healthcare professional. For example, stopping the bleeding from a wound that needs suturing. 

Interdependent Nursing Interventions

Interdependent nursing interventions are those that require the coordinated efforts of a nurse and at least one other member of the healthcare team. For example, when performing CPR, a nurse may provide chest compressions while another team member provides ventilation for a patient.

4 Types of Nursing Interventions With Examples

Based on their roles in healthcare, nurses use four main types of nursing interventions to achieve specific health-related outcomes, depending on the people they care for: 

• Health promotion
• Disease prevention
• Rehabilitation

These 4 types of nursing interventions can be carried out in many different settings, including hospitals, clinics, schools, and even patients’ homes.

1. Health Promotion Interventions

Health promotion interventions aim to improve people’s overall health and well-being and prevent injuries. 

Nurses can provide patient education on healthy lifestyle choices such as eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly. 

In addition, nurses can help patients to quit smoking and reduce their alcohol intake. 

2. Disease Prevention Interventions

The goal of disease prevention interventions is to reduce the risk of people developing specific diseases and illnesses. 

Immunizations are one of the most important nursing interventions in this category. Immunizations help to protect individuals from diseases, many of which can be deadly. By ensuring that patients are up-to-date on their vaccinations, nurses can help reduce the spread of disease and save lives. 

Nurses also play an important role in providing education about the importance of immunizations. By raising awareness about the dangers of disease and the efficacy of vaccines, nurses can help to promote immunization rates and improve public health.

3. Treatment Interventions

The purpose of treatment interventions is to manage and treat existing health problems. 

The most common treatment nurses provide is pain control. Nurses administer analgesics, reposition patients, provide cold packs, and elevate injured extremities.

4. Rehabilitation Interventions

Rehabilitation interventions help patients regain function after an injury or illness. 

Some examples of this include: 

Assisting a patient ambulate to regain their strength and lung capacity again after surgery. 

Teaching a patient how to use an incentive spirometer to improve lung function after surgery or prolonged bed rest.

7 Domains of Nursing Interventions

Another way to identify the different types of nursing interventions is by their domain. The 565 nursing interventions are grouped into 7 different nursing intervention domains in NIC.  

The 7 domains or types of nursing interventions are: 

• Physiological: Basic
• Physiological: Complex
• Health System

What is the Purpose of Nursing Interventions?

Nursing interventions are designed to address the specific needs of each patient, family, or community. They are customized to fit the specific needs of each patient or family. 

In many cases, nursing interventions will focus on helping a patient cope with a chronic illness or to manage a complex health condition. However, some nursing interventions are used to promote healthy lifestyles, prevent injuries, and provide education and support for patients and their families. 

Ultimately, the goal of nursing interventions is to improve the health and well-being of all people and the groups and communities they live within.

Nursing Intervention FAQs

How many types of nursing interventions are there.

• There are 4 main types of nursing interventions, while there are 7 different domains of nursing interventions. 

What is the best example of a nursing intervention?

• Starting an IV and administering IV fluids to a patient who can’t eat or drink, administering medications for pain control or to treat specific medical conditions, and changing wound dressings to prevent infection are all examples of nursing interventions.

What is the highest priority nursing intervention?

• The highest-priority nursing interventions can be identified according to their order of priority in sustaining human life. The ABCs of first aid reflect the highest priority interventions for nurses as well: ensuring that a patient has an open or patent airway, that a patient is breathing (or is ventilated), and that a patient’s heart is beating to circulate blood to their vital organs. All other nursing interventions have a lower priority than the ABCs.

Leona Werezak BSN, MN, RN is the Director of Business Development at NCLEX Education. She began her nursing career in a small rural hospital in northern Canada where she worked as a new staff nurse doing everything from helping deliver babies to medevacing critically ill patients. Learning much from her patients and colleagues at the bedside for 15 years, she also taught in baccalaureate nursing programs for almost 20 years as a nursing adjunct faculty member (yes! Some of those years she did both!). As a freelance writer online, she writes content for nursing schools and colleges, healthcare and medical businesses, as well as various nursing sites.

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How to Write a Nursing Essay with a Quick Guide

Ever felt the blank-page panic when assigned a nursing essay? Wondering where to start or if your words will measure up to the weight of your experiences? Fear not, because today, we're here to guide you through this process.

Imagine you're at your favorite coffee spot, armed with a cup of motivation (and maybe a sneaky treat). Got it? Great! Now, let's spill the secrets on how to spin your nursing tales into words that not only get you that A+ but also tug at the heartstrings of anyone reading. We've got your back with nursing essay examples that'll be your inspiration, an outline to keep you on the right path, and more!

What Is a Nursing Essay

Let's start by dissecting the concept. A nursing essay serves as a focused exploration of a specific aspect of nursing, providing an opportunity for students to demonstrate their theoretical knowledge and its practical application in patient care settings.

Picture it as a journey through the challenges and victories of a budding nurse. These essays go beyond the classroom, tackling everything from tricky ethical dilemmas to the impact of healthcare policies on the front lines. It's not just about grades; it's about proving, 'I'm ready for the real deal.'

So, when you read or write a nursing essay, it's not just words on paper. It's like looking into the world of someone who's about to start their nursing career – someone who's really thought about the ins and outs of being a nurse. And before you kick off your nursing career, don't shy away from asking - write my essay for me - we're ready to land a professional helping hand.

How to Start a Nursing Essay

When you start writing a nursing essay, it is like gearing up for a crucial mission. Here's your quick guide from our nursing essay writing service :

Choosing Your Topic: Select a topic that sparks your interest and relates to real-world nursing challenges. Consider areas like patient care, ethical dilemmas, or the impact of technology on healthcare.

Outline Your Route : Plan your essay's journey. Create a roadmap with key points you want to cover. This keeps you on track and your essay on point.

Craft a Strong Thesis: Assuming you already know how to write a hook , kick off your writing with a surprising fact, a thought-provoking quote, or a brief anecdote. Then, state your main argument or perspective in one sentence. This thesis will serve as the compass for your essay, guiding both you and your reader through the rest of your writing.

How to Structure a Nursing Essay

Every great essay is like a well-orchestrated performance – it needs a script, a narrative that flows seamlessly, capturing the audience's attention from start to finish. In our case, this script takes the form of a well-organized structure. Let's delve into the elements that teach you how to write a nursing essay, from a mere collection of words to a compelling journey of insights.

Nursing Essay Introduction

Begin your nursing essay with a spark. Knowing how to write essay introduction effectively means sharing a real-life scenario or a striking fact related to your topic. For instance, if exploring patient care, narrate a personal experience that made a lasting impression. Then, crisply state your thesis – a clear roadmap indicating the direction your essay will take. Think of it as a teaser that leaves the reader eager to explore the insights you're about to unfold.

In the main body, dive into the heart of your essay. Each paragraph should explore a specific aspect of your topic. Back your thoughts with examples – maybe a scenario from your clinical experience, a relevant case study, or findings from credible sources. Imagine it as a puzzle coming together; each paragraph adds a piece, forming a complete picture. Keep it focused and let each idea flow naturally into the next.

Nursing Essay Conclusion

As writing a nursing essay nears the end, resist the urge to introduce new elements. Summarize your main points concisely. Remind the reader of the real-world significance of your thesis – why it matters in the broader context of nursing. Conclude with a thought-provoking statement or a call to reflection, leaving your reader with a lasting impression. It's like the final scene of a movie that leaves you thinking long after the credits roll.

Nursing Essay Outline

Before diving into the essay, craft a roadmap – your outline. This isn't a rigid skeleton but a flexible guide that ensures your ideas flow logically. Consider the following template from our research paper writing service :

Introduction

• Opening Hook: Share a brief, impactful patient care scenario.
• Relevance Statement: Explain why the chosen topic is crucial in nursing.
• Thesis: Clearly state the main argument or perspective.

Patient-Centered Care:

• Definition: Clarify what patient-centered care means in nursing.
• Personal Experience: Share a relevant encounter from clinical practice.
• Evidence: Integrate findings from reputable nursing literature.

Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing Practice

• Scenario Presentation: Describe a specific ethical challenge faced by nurses.
• Decision-Making Process: Outline steps taken to address the dilemma.
• Ethical Frameworks: Discuss any ethical theories guiding the decision.

Impact of Technology on Nursing

• Current Trends: Highlight technological advancements in nursing.
• Case Study: Share an example of technology enhancing patient care.
• Challenges and Benefits: Discuss the pros and cons of technology in nursing.
• Summary of Key Points: Recap the main ideas from each section.
• Real-world Implications: Emphasize the practical significance in nursing practice.
• Closing Thought: End with a reflective statement or call to action.

A+ in Nursing Essays Await You!

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Nursing Essay Examples

Here are the nursing Essay Examples for you to read.

Writing a Nursing Essay: Essential Tips

When it comes to crafting a stellar nursing essay, a few key strategies can elevate your work from ordinary to exceptional. Here are some valuable tips from our medical school personal statement writer :

Connect with Personal Experiences:

• Approach: Weave personal encounters seamlessly into your narrative.
• Reasoning: This not only adds authenticity to your essay but also serves as a powerful testament to your firsthand understanding of the challenges and triumphs in the nursing field.

Emphasize Critical Thinking:

• Approach: Go beyond describing situations; delve into their analysis.
• Reasoning: Nursing essays are the perfect platform to showcase your critical thinking skills – an essential attribute in making informed decisions in real-world healthcare scenarios.

Incorporate Patient Perspectives:

• Approach: Integrate patient stories or feedback into your discussion.
• Reasoning: By bringing in the human element, you demonstrate empathy and an understanding of the patient's experience, a core aspect of nursing care.

Integrate Evidence-Based Practice:

• Approach: Support your arguments with the latest evidence-based literature.
• Reasoning: Highlighting your commitment to staying informed and applying current research underscores your dedication to evidence-based practice – a cornerstone in modern nursing.

Address Ethical Considerations:

• Approach: Explicitly discuss the ethical dimensions of your topic.
• Reasoning: Nursing essays provide a platform to delve into the ethical complexities inherent in healthcare, showcasing your ability to navigate and analyze these challenges.

Balance Theory and Practice:

• Approach: Connect theoretical concepts to real-world applications.
• Reasoning: By bridging the gap between theory and practice, you illustrate your capacity to apply academic knowledge effectively in the dynamic realm of nursing.

Highlight Interdisciplinary Collaboration:

• Approach: Discuss collaborative efforts with other healthcare professionals.
• Reasoning: Acknowledging the interdisciplinary nature of healthcare underscores your understanding of the importance of teamwork – a vital aspect of successful nursing practice.

Reflect on Lessons Learned:

• Approach: Conclude with a thoughtful reflection on personal growth or lessons from your exploration.
• Reasoning: This not only provides a satisfying conclusion but also demonstrates your self-awareness and commitment to continuous improvement as a nursing professional.

As we wrap up, think of your essay as a story about your journey into nursing. It's not just about getting a grade; it's a way to share what you've been through and why you want to be a nurse.

Imagine the person reading it – maybe a teacher, a future coworker, or someone starting their nursing journey. They're trying to understand your passion and why you care about nursing.

So, when you write, remember it's more than just an assignment. It's your chance to show why nursing matters to you. And if you ever need help – there's always support from our essay writer online .

Ready to Excel in Your Nursing School Essay?

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How to Write a Nursing Essay?

How can a nursing essay effectively address ethical considerations, what are some examples of evidence-based practices in nursing essays, related articles.

How to Write a Nursing Essay for a Nursing Class | Student's Guide

A nursing essay is a focused piece of writing that develops nursing-related ideas using evidence, analysis, and interpretation.

In most cases, the content and length of the nursing essay will depend on the level of study, course requirements, instructor preference, and the type of nursing specialization you are taking. Nevertheless, you will primarily write nursing essays, including persuasive, definition, descriptive, argumentative, reflective, and narrative essays.

The process of writing an essay on a nursing topic is the same as the typical essay writing process; it entails three stages ( pre-writing, writing, and post-writing phases ), each with its steps. Although nursing is a noble career, everyone confuses the process of being easy. Nevertheless, completing nursing essays for a nursing class can be challenging, especially if you don't have a structured approach. Not to worry, though!

In this writing guide, we walk you through the steps to take, the structure to adopt, the top tips to use, and some topics to consider when writing an academic nursing essay.

Types of Nursing Essays Nursing Students Write

If you are wondering what types of essays, you are likely to be assigned when in nursing college or when pursuing a nursing degree from a university, let's introduce you to some of them. Academic writing is an essential skill for nurses that they require attaining proficiency in their careers. And because it is a crucial part of the profession, you will be assigned to write different essays. Here are different writings that you will do in nursing school:

• Nursing School Essays. These are the essays or personal statements written before joining nursing school. It is written to show your zeal, passion, and determination to be a nurse. It includes "why nursing" essays, "why I want to become a nurse" essays, or "the noble nursing profession." These are written as part of the application process.
• Reflective Essays. Nursing reflective essays entail expressing your feelings, thoughts, and experiences about an event, such as a practicum, hospital experience, shadowing experience, research project, or study experience. You can use reflective frameworks such as the Johari window, Gibbs reflective model, Kolb's reflective model, Era Cycle, or Driscoll's what model. Your personal nursing philosophy paper is also written in a reflective tone.
• Nursing Scholarship Essays. These are essays written to explain to a scholarship-selection committee why you deserve a scholarship to study nursing or to advance your degree.
• Nursing case study analysis essays
• Descriptive essays. These essays describe a process, topic, or phenomenon of interest in nursing practice.
• Comparative Essays. These essays compare and contrast two things, places, processes, and objects. You can be asked to evaluate middle-range theories and compare disease intervention processes, articles, texts, or events.
• Persuasive Essays. These essays entail convincing the readers to adopt a certain viewpoint or take a specific action. For example, you can be asked to write a marijuana legalization essay or an essay on why nurses should be involved in disaster management.
• Expository Essays. Expository essays are five-paragraph essays that explain something or educate/inform the reader. For example, you could be asked to write an essay on the advantages of adopting electronic health systems, why nurses should advance their studies, how to address the nursing shortage, or the legislation and legal requirements to become a nurse.
• Narrative Essays. These are essays that tell a story from the perspective of an individual. For instance, you can narrate how you came to love nursing, your nursing philosophy, or your leadership philosophy.

Nursing Essay Writing Process

A typical nursing essay writing process takes three stages: prewriting, writing, and post-writing. Of course, this also applies when writing a nursing research paper or a case study, for that matter.

Note that the time, effort, and dedication required may differ depending on the essay's type, length, and scope.

For example, if you are assigned to write a 3–4-page essay analyzing a healthcare policy, most of your time will be consumed by research, planning, and writing. And if you are to write an essay on why you love nursing, you will most likely spend less time researching because you are writing it from your perspective. In a nutshell, the three stages entail:

Prewriting stage

• Unpacking the question
• Defining and refining the essay topic
• Creating a title
• Researching and gathering sources
• Developing a thesis statement
• Creating an outline

Writing Stage

• Crafting the introduction, body, and conclusion
• Fixing the in-text citations

Post writing stage

• Editing, revising, proofreading, formatting, and polishing the essay.
• Checking for plagiarism
• Submitting the essay on time

Pre-Writing Phase for writing a nursing essay

Before you start writing a nursing essay, you have to ensure that you are clear about what is required of you

Unpack or Dissect the Question

The first step in the process of writing a nursing assignment is to know the question. You can do this by reading the prompt in the portal (Blackboard or Canvas), email from the lecturer, or PowerPoint slide presentations from class.

Understanding the question helps you structure your approach, limit the scope of your research, and write a nursing paper addressing the prompt. You should look for pointers, signal words, or terms such as evaluate, elaborate, explore, discuss, examine, illustrate, compare and contrast, cause and effect, make a case, etc.

When you get it right from the onset, you can achieve the goal of your nursing essay, which is to demonstrate that you have a better grasp of theoretical concepts and research processes and can write a professionally written paper.

Select a suitable topic

In most cases, you will be given a topic to write about because nursing essays focus on the same issues, unlike other subjects.

 The field is leveled in nursing classes. Nevertheless, due to the differences in communities, states, and nationalities that nursing students come from, you might be allowed to select a topic on your own.

After selecting a suitable topic that is neither too broad nor too narrow, submit it for approval by your professor or nurse educator. Ideally, choose a topic that aligns with the course concepts, theories, and readings. For instance, if discussing healthcare determinants in a specific community, focus on a website such as HealthyPeople to get the facts right.

Use the determinants mentioned in class when benchmarking nursing practice and community experiences.

The same applies to other areas such as anatomy, pathophysiology, epidemiology, care planning, assessment, leadership, education, practice, state laws, advocacy, policy analysis, etc.

When choosing the topic, go for the one you are interested in. Probably select a topic that aligns with your future ambitions/specialization.

Related Article: Nursing Research Topics for Essays and Nursing Papers.

Focus your Research and Select Sources

Once you have a topic, you must research widely from credible nursing sources.

Develop an understanding of the topic, understand what nursing scholars are saying about the topic, and select potential nursing references for your paper.

You can use scholarly nursing databases such as PubMed, Medline, Embase, BMC, the Cochrane Library, or the JBI EBP database.

Limit your search to articles and journals published within the last five years unless you have to reference a seminal work that has not been updated through the years.

Develop your thesis

A common question students ask is whether nursing essays have thesis statements. The response is that, like any other essay, you should include a thesis that announces your central aim or idea.

Your thesis statement should be assertive, specific, arguable, precise, and demonstrative. It should round up the gist of your entire paper.  The topic, supporting, and concluding sentences depends on the thesis statement.

Outline your essay

After creating a reasonable and focused thesis statement, map out a rough structure of your essay. Mapping out your essay helps you understand what falls where and stay focused when writing.

The essay outline should have your title, hook statement, thesis statement, and topic sentences. You will be filling this outline in the next step when writing the paper.

Writing stage for the Nursing Essay

In the writing phase, you must focus on filling your outline with content. Follow the following steps.

Write the introduction first

By now, you have identified the direction you want your essay to take, depending on the structured approach you have selected to answer the prompt/question. The introduction of your essay sets the tone, direction, and scope of your essay. since it is the invitation for your readers and the first contact point, it should grab their attention and then inform them what is to come. The introduction should be 15-20% of the word count. It should entail:

• Hook – this is the first sentence in your nursing essay, and it should raise the curiosity of your readers and pique their interests. You can use a statistical, epidemiological, or surprising fact related to the topic. In most cases, when writing essays on disease, epidemiology, and disease processes, shocking statistical/epidemiological facts can do the work. For instance, if you are writing an essay on mental health or illness, state the portion of the affected national, international, regional, or state population.
• Background of the topic – the background is where you give the context that helps your readers understand your arguments. Provide an overview of the topic, the importance of the nursing topic, and if possible, explain the complicated terms.
• Thesis statement – state your thesis statement as stated in the outline. In addition, the thesis should signal your position on the topic.
• Signposting – this is where you map out the content of your essay by stating the content in each section. It is specifically applicable to longer essays.

Develop the body paragraphs

After writing the introduction, you need to write the body paragraphs of your nursing essay. The body is approximately 75-80% of your essay's word count.

It is where you make arguments, give examples, and provide evidence to support the thesis. You should present, analyze, interpret, and organize the sources when supporting your claims and arguments.

In terms of writing the paragraphs, ensure that each body paragraph has an outstanding topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentences.

 The first sentence is the topic sentence, which announces what the paragraph is about.

The supporting sentences are where you present the facts, information, and examples from scholarly sources. Make sure to cite the information to avoid plagiarism.

Also, have transition words to help you write an essay with a good flow of ideas.

In nursing, you can use AMA, APA, ASA, or Harvard formatting; ensure you stick to the respective rules.

Write the conclusion

 The conclusion is the final paragraph of your nursing essay. You should write it to include 10-15% of the word count of your essay. A strong nursing essay conclusion restates the thesis, ties together the main arguments, has a call to action, or provides a sense of closure to the readers.

It should have an impactful or memorable sentence that lets the reader develop a strong connection and have a positive impression.

Your conclusion should not have any new facts, concepts, or examples. Instead, it should summarize your essay.

If you have a nursing essay that has a concept map, you can hire a concept map writer from our website and fulfil your assignment on time. 

Tips to help you write better Nursing Essays

As we began by saying, writing nursing essays follows the same steps as the essays you have written before. Apart from mastering the citations and structure and following the above steps to write a powerful essay, you can use these tips to ensure that your paper meets the requirements for the top grades in the rubric.

• Make clarifications early enough . When assigned to write a nursing essay, start by reading the instructions and unpacking what is required of you. Then, if you have any questions, contact your nurse educator or professor early enough.
• Allocate adequate time to complete the paper. To write a top-grade nursing essay, you must allocate enough time to research, draft, edit, and polish your essay. Therefore, completing and submitting the essay before the deadline is advisable.
• Research widely . If you are going to write a winning essay, you need to support your ideas with facts and pieces of evidence. Extract this evidence and supporting facts from nursing databases. Use journals, nurse organization websites, and government websites to support your arguments.
• Write first and edit later . When writing the paper, focus on writing first so that all your attention is focused on writing a paper with a good flow of ideas. Then, you can save everything else for later when proofreading and editing to turn the paper into a final draft.
• Incorporate concepts and theories from class . Nursing studies entail the learning and applying of nursing concepts, theories, and practical experiences. Therefore, focus your paper on these theories based on class readings, discussion posts and responses, and experiences during practice.
• Organize your paper well . As you write the essay, think creatively. Remember to present your facts logically and support your arguments using relevant in-text citations.
• Check for plagiarism . Before submitting your paper, check if it has plagiarism. You can do so using free plagiarism checkers such as Plagscan or Grammarly.
• Format your paper well . Ensure that you format and structure your paper according to the formatting and citation styles highlighted in your essay prompt. If you are unsure, refer to the citation machines or websites.
• Hire someone to write . If you cannot write the essay, hire a good nursing essay writer to write a model nursing essay that can demonstrate how to approach your topic. Then, you can edit, use it as a guide, and write an essay that addresses the prompt.

Related: Writing a nursing diagnosis statement.

Writing a nursing essay helps you develop critical thinking, creativity, and decision-making skills. For instance, writing an essay that applies the clinical reasoning cycle or SBAR communication model will help you know how to apply such models in practice. Therefore, ensure that your nursing essay meets your nursing class's content, structural, theoretical constructs, quality improvement models, and facts.

Related Articles:

• How to write a nurse student resume with no experience.
• Nursing theories to consider for your essay.
• Reasons to join the WGU RN to BSN Program.
• Writing a perfect nursing diagnosis.
• Steps for writing a perfect nursing care plan.

When in nursing school, essay writing is a critical aspect. You can hire a nursing essay writer from our website if you are strapped for time to complete your essays. Our experts can craft high-quality essays on any nursing essay topic of your choice. All papers are written in the appropriate format: APA, Harvard, AMA, or ASA. Check out our entire nursing class help package and make a deal today!

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• Volume 22, Issue 2
• Nursing interventions and research contribute to transforming health outcomes and improving the patient’s experience of living with cancer
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• Saeed Moradian ,
• Doris Howell
• Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing , University of Toronto, University Health Network , Toronto , Ontario , Canada
• Correspondence to Dr Saeed Moradian, Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, University Health Network, Toronto ON M5G 2M9, Canada; saeed.moradian{at}uhnresearch.ca

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2018-103046

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• clinical trials

Commentary on: Charalambous A, Wells M, Campbell P, et al . A scoping review of trials of interventions led or delivered by cancer nurses. Int J Nurs Stud 2018;86:36–43.

Implications for practice and research

Nursing interventions need to be made more explicit in research trials to increase recognition of the impact of nursing contributions on outcomes among patients with cancer.

The gap between nursing research findings and practice highlight the need to boost reflection on the nursing impact on cancer care and on the need to measure performance.

Increasing attention is focused on the role of nurses across the cancer continuum to meet the growing demands of a burgeoning population of patients with cancer and survivors. Nurses play an important role in cancer research and innovations 1 ; however, little is known about the impact and value of nursing intervention trials across the spectrum of cancer care. The comprehensive scoping review conducted by Charalambous and colleagues 2 on nurse-led and nurse-delivered intervention trials has made visible the important contribution of nurses’ in delivering and testing interventions and across the continuum of cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. This body of knowledge should be considered in the planning of cancer services and positioning nurses as essential to the delivery of quality of cancer services and in supporting patients to optimise health and living well with and beyond cancer.

Cancer nurses have been involved in delivering varied, multifaceted and complex interventions using different methods, although the clarity and transparency of intervention reporting in trials was less than optimal. Most of the cancer nurse-led interventions in direct care and/or supportive care are delivered by specialist and/or advanced cancer nurses across the cancer care continuum. The largest number of identified nurse intervention trials focused on teaching, assessment and monitoring and the provision of supportive care (symptom management and self-care) or psychosocial support and were delivered using multiple modes (face-to-face, telephone, online).

Cancer nursing research is a rapidly developing field. 4 This scoping review has shown that cancer nurses are actively contributing to improving health outcomes and the patient’s experience of living well with and beyond cancer through diverse and complex interventions across care settings and across the cancer continuum. Although many studies report the effectiveness of nursing interventions on patient outcomes, 5 few attempt to capture the link between the roles of cancer nurses and their contribution in the cancer care pathway. This review highlights existing gaps in research and innovations in oncology nursing research.

The search criteria and analysis plan were clear. Independent review by two authors and other steps taken in the review to lessen bias and errors during study selection, data extraction and analysis have been reported and were appropriate. The literature search was comprehensive and consisted of a range of relevant databases and handsearching to detect and minimise the potential for missing studies. Criteria for classification of interventions and the use of the Omaha framework in the narrative synthesis enhanced the reliability and quality of the review. As the authors indicated, poor reporting of the components of interventions in the included clinical trials affected the strength of evidence. It is critical that robust evidence is available to shape future research and to enhance understanding of nurses’ contribution to effective interventions in cancer care. 6 The findings from this review support the need for more comprehensive education, continuing training and developing the research skills of cancer nurses in the conduct of well-designed clinical trials to further extend their role and contribution to quality cancer care.

• Micallo G ,
• Cessa M , et al
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• Campbell P , et al
• 3. ↵ OMAHA . The OMAHA System: Solving the Clinical Data-Information Puzzle , 2016 .
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• Kotronoulas G ,
• Kearney N ,
• Maguire R , et al

Competing interests None declared.

Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

Read the full text or download the PDF:

Best Guide for Writing a Nursing Process Essay

Are you struggling with a nursing process essay assignment? Worry not. Our online nursing writers understand that a nursing process essay is challenging to write because it requires a deep understanding of all the critical steps involved. For this reason, our writers have come up with a comprehensive guide to help you. We have also defined what a nursing process essay is, its purpose, and its characteristics. We have also provided an outline to guide you through the process of writing the essay and included a sample.

Short History of the Nursing Process

The term nursing process was first uttered in 1955 by Lydia Hall, a nursing theorist. She introduced three significant steps to the process: observation, administration of care, and validation.

But in 1967, Yura and Walsh further developed the process by adding assessment as the fourth step. From there, the process was referred to as (APIE). However, it wasn't until 1974 that the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) added the nursing diagnosis to the process, making it a five-step process.

What is a Nursing Process?

A nursing process is a systematic method used by healthcare professionals, including nurses, to provide care to patients in healthcare facilities. It involves a series of steps that lead one to accomplish the set goals. A nursing process ensures that caregivers offer individualized, holistic, effective, patient-focused care to all.

The process is based on the Standards of Professional Nursing Practice established by the American Nurses Association (ANA). These standards guide nurses' behaviors and actions regardless of their roles, positions, populations, or capacities. To provide care to patients, caregivers must adopt critical thinking skills, client-centred approaches to treatment, goal-oriented tasks, evidence-based practice (EDP) recommendations, and nursing intuition.

A nursing process consists of the following components: assessment (data collection), Nursing Diagnosis, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. Use the mnemonic ADPIE to help remember these steps.

What is the Purpose of a Nursing Process?

Many nursing students, at some point, will ask themselves what the purpose of the nursing process essay is without realizing how essential it is in the medical field. That said, the following are all the reasons why the nursing process is needed:

• To establish the needs of a patient.
• Develop plans that meet the identified.
• Develop specific nursing interventions that meet those needs.
• Provide professional nursing care to all.
• To properly guide nursing practices for activities that include health promotion and protection and disease prevention.
• Providing a foundation for nurses and nurses students to practice to understand their critical thinking skills.
• The nursing process is important to pharmacotherapeutics as it guides drug administration decisions.

Research has shown that incorporating the nursing process into patient care is critical in the dynamic, complex world of patient care. It is especially important in the care of the aging population who suffer from various health problems and are also at risk of experiencing missed chances to spot life-threatening illnesses.

Characteristics of the Nursing Process

The nursing process has some distinguishing characteristics that you must be aware of before writing a nursing process essay.

• Goel-oriented - a nursing process essay must be guided by specific goals and purposes based on the health of the patient. Please note that the goals should be driven by the patient's problems and report your problems as a nurse.
• The organized/systematic process comprises five significant steps , each depending on the others.
• Cyclic and dynamic —the nursing process is continuous because it is hard to predict health issues, as they can change over time.
• Individualized & Humanistic Care— The nursing process provides a foundation of care based on each patient's needs. This means that the plan of care for one patient will not be the same as that of another. For example, a 10-year-old patient with diabetes will not have the same plan of care as that of a 70-year-old man.
• Involves decision-making skills - caregivers make critical decisions for the sake of the patient's life. The nursing process provides a systematic step in which they can make these decisions.

Outline of a Nursing Process Essay

Now that you know what a nursing process is, it's time to determine what should be included in a nursing process essay.

Introduction

This is the first paragraph of your nursing process essay, which introduces the readers to what the paper is about. In any healthcare setting, every nurse must address patients' needs and concerns. When this is not done at all or done inefficiently, the life of the patient is jeopardized.

One must understand that nurses must consider the patient holistically. In other words, they should focus on the patient's physical, spiritual, mental, and social well-being to understand how to effectively care for them.

Nurse Process

After the introduction, jump right into the process and discuss each of them individually.

Please note that each step in the nursing process is critical and requires patients' collaboration to ensure its effectiveness. Furthermore, it doesn't have any specified time; it can last days, months, or years, depending on the client's health status.

At this stage, Talk about these steps in relation to the patient under discussion.

Steps of a Nursing Process

The following are the five stages of the nursing process that you can use to write your essay. Each step relies on the efficiency of the others, so it's important to master all of them.

Step 1: Assessment

Assessment refers to the systematic and dynamic way of collecting, analyzing, and communicating patient data, which is key in determining the proper plan of care. Sources of patient data include:

• Patient - the primary source of information.
• Family, spouses, and other friends.
• Patient records, records from members of health care.
• Medical history, physical examination, and progress notes.
• Laboratory tests &other health professions.

The nurses use various data collection strategies by assessment to gather this information. These strategies include:

• Interviews— this includes asking the patient questions about their health, what brought them to the hospital, etc. It consists of three key stages: 1. Introduction, 2. Working, 3. Closure.
• Observations involve noting the patient's general appearance and behaviours. They are crucial in determining the client's health status, both physical and mental.
• Physical examination is done through the following techniques:
• Auscultation

After assessment, the data must be documented to ensure smooth communication among the healthcare team that will be attending to the patient.

There are various types of assessment:

• Comprehensive assessment- is completed upon patient admission to the hospital and provides a complete overview of the patient's health history and current needs.
• Focused assessment is limited to a particular healthcare need or risk. It is mostly used when screening for specific issues.
• An ongoing assessment is for following up with the patient to see how they are faring. It can also be used to monitor specific problems.

Step 2: Diagnosis

This refers to the clinical judgment given to the patient based on the results of their assessment. According to the NANDA diagnosis is the judgment based on clinical knowledge that helps in determining potential or actual patient experiences and responses to health problems and life processes.

Through diagnosis, nurses can understand the patient’s actual response to potential health problems.

Please note that there is a difference between nursing diagnosis and medical diagnosis. A medical diagnosis is given by a physician and identifies a specific disease, condition, or pathological state.

Activities conducted at this stage include:

• Interpreting and analyzing data
• Identifying the strengths and health problems of the patient.
• Formulating and validating diagnosis
• Developing a prioritized list of diagnosis
• Detecting and referring signs and symptoms indicating a problem that nurses can’t handle

At this point, there are various types of diagnosis:

• Actual diagnosis— a problem that the existence of its characteristics has validated.
• Risk nursing diagnosis- a clinical judgment that an individual is more likely to develop a certain problem.
• Possible nursing diagnosis- describe the suspected problem.
• Wellness diagnosis is judgment about a person or group of people who are transitioning from a certain level of wellness to a higher level of wellness.
• Syndrome nursing diagnoses

Step 3: Planning

Planning involves the formulation of guidelines to prevent, reduce, or resolve the identified client health problems. Some of the activities at this point include:

• Establish priorities.
• Identify what the expected patient is.
• Select the appropriate evidence-based nursing intervention for the patient.
• Communicate the plan of care to the patient and their close family.
• Record the nursing care plan in the patient's records.

For each patient issue, the nurse must assign a goal for the patient’s positive outcome. The goals of a nurse care plan must be:

• Measurable /Meaningful
• Attainable /Action-Oriented
• Realistic /Results-Oriented
• Timely /Time-Oriented

Good planning enhances communication, documentation, reimbursement, and continuity of care in every healthcare facility.

Please note that the nursing plan occurs in three stages:

• Initial plan —This is developed by the nurse who takes the patient to the hospital and performs the assessment.
• Ongoing planning— this occurs at a later stage, and the purpose is to update the patient's plan of care.
• Discharge planning — this occurs when the patient is being discharged from the hospital. The aim is to update the care plans that the patient will need after discharge.

The main goals here are to prevent disease and illness, restore health, and enable the patient to cope with altered functioning.

Related: How to format a paper in APA.

Stege 4: Implementation

What are the actions that the nurse will take to ensure the goals conducted in the planning stages come to fruition? Implementation refers to any actions/ interventions the nurse will do to improve the life of the patient.

For instance, if the goal is pain management for conditions such as arthritis, some examples of nursing interventions include Teaching critical exercises that can help reduce pain.

When writing your essay, you must highlight these interventions and ensure they are related to the patient's condition.

Nursing interventions are classified into three:

• Independent—these are those that a nurse can provide without needing a prescription. For example, monitoring a patient's 24-hour fluid intake is necessary because of the risk of imbalanced fluid volume.
• Dependent—These interventions require a prescription from a physician before they can be administered, such as the administration of prescribed scheduled diuretics.
• Collaborative— these are actions that nurses carry out in collaboration with the patient healthcare team. For example, the nurses manage oxygen therapy in consultation with the patient's respiratory therapist.

Every intervention administered must be documented to help in evaluating and examining the patient’s health status.

Step 5: Evaluation

This is the final phase of the nursing process. The evaluation aims to check whether the interventions have worked and whether the desired goals have been met. To do this, the nurse must review all the stages in the nursing process.

Evaluation is done when the nurse interacts with the patient. This phase is systematic and ongoing because the aim is to identify the factors that contribute to the patient's health success or failure. Depending on the results, the nurse can modify the plan of care.

A successful evaluation is achieved when the nurse is in constant communication with the patient throughout the process. Nurses can get feedback about what they did right or wrong, which can help them make improvements for the future.

Please note that it is important to apply critical thinking skills at every stage of the nursing process to recognize health issues that could put the life of the patient at risk and develop effective ways of dealing with them. As you write the paper, remember to include references, preferably peer-reviewed journals published in the last 5 years.

Related Read: Great Capstone Project Topics for Nursing Students.

Nursing Process Essay Example

To show you exactly how to write a nursing assessment process essay, we have put together the following example.

The example is based on a case of a 20-year-old female admitted to the hospital. Her body temperature is elevated, and she has a chesty cough producing green phlegm. Her breathing is fast with difficulty.

Pneumonia is a respiratory infection that, if not treated, could lead to serious complications. Through the nursing process, I can guide my approach to determining the best form of care for the patient.

For this patient, my first step involved taking the vital signs, which include the temperature, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and pulse oximetry. I also assessed the lungs to determine the sounds, oxygen saturation levels, and cough produced. I went through the patient's medical history and reviewed all the medications that the patient was taking or taking for their symptoms.

Through my assessment, I found that V/S is temperature 39.1C, pulse 92 b/m, respiration rate 28 b/m, and blood pressure 122/80 mm/hg. Chest auscultation revealed respiratory crackles.

Some other signs I observed include the following:

• Adventitious breath sounds
• Abnormal respiratory rate, rhythm, and depth
• Restlessness
• Change in level of consciousness
• Ineffective or absent cough reflex

Ineffective airway clearance is caused by the accumulation of sputum, as manifested by chesty and productive cough. She is breathing rapidly and with difficulty.

The sputum cultures and sensitivities revealed the presence of infecting organisms.

The chest X-rays showed that the patient's lungs had areas of increased density. This is an indication of possible infection.

Related Reading: How to write a nursing concept analysis paper.

To help the patient, the following are the desired goals and expected outcomes:

• The patient will maintain optimal gas exchange.
• They will display and maintain a patent airway with breath sounds clearing.
• The patient will demonstrate effective coughing.
• There will be the absence of dyspnea( shortness of breath) and cyanosis by periodically clearing secretions in their airways.
• The patient will display and maintain optimal air exchange with a respiratory rate of 12 to 20 cycles per minute.

Implementations

To help the patient deal with ineffective airway clearance, I used the following interventions:

• I elevated the patient’s head at a 45-degree angle to prevent mucus secretion accumulation.
• Periodically suctioned when the patients had difficulty breathing.
• Monitor the patient’s vital signs
• Monitor their level of consciousness
• Monitor respiratory status: labored respirations, cyanosis,
• Monitor their pulse oximetry.
• Administer oxygen as prescribed.
• Monitor for complications.

My plan at this point is to monitor the progress of the patient and whether the interventions administered are working. The goal of the evaluation was to help me determine whether to continue, stop, or change the interventions used.

My evaluation involved the following;

• The patient managed to move three times a day.
• The patient took all the prescribed medications, including antibiotics.
• The patient received the needed fluids.
• The patient and their family understood information about their care

My conclusion is that the interventions used helped improve the patient’s health. The patient responded positively to all the interventions.

Related Reading: How to write a nursing care plan.

Issues of Concern with the Nursing Process

Even though the nursing process is an important tool in providing quality care to patients, studies have raised issues of concern. For instance, a 2011 study conducted in Mekelle Zone hospitals showed that the majority of nurses lacked the right knowledge necessary to implement the nursing process into health practice. It showed that these nurses were inhibited by factors that included nurse-patient ratios.

90% of the study participants lacked the necessary experience to apply the process to standard practice. Other issues that inhibit nurses from applying the nursing process in providing patient care include a shortage of available resources and increased workloads caused by high patient-nurse ratios.

The nursing process is a critical tool that helps improve patient care. For nurses, the nursing care plan helps show whether your actions helped improve the health of the patient. On the other hand, patients benefit, and the nursing process is effective. When they are an active participant in their care, their health status improves.

Thus, as a nursing student, it is important to learn how to write a good nursing process essay to prepare yourself for a future career as a nurse.

If you need further help understanding this critical process or writing the essay, our writers can help. Place an order today for more information.  GradeCrest is a leading nursing custom writing website that guarantees you 100% human-hand-crafted papers that are 100% original and plagiarism-free.

Gradecrest is a professional writing service that provides original model papers. We offer personalized services along with research materials for assistance purposes only. All the materials from our website should be used with proper references. See our Terms of Use Page for proper details.

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What Are Nursing Interventions? A Guide With Examples

If you’re struggling to wrap your head around the term “ nursing interventions ,” don’t worry — you’re not alone. “Intervention” might sound like a big complicated word, but it just describes what nurses do daily to care for their patients.

Nursing interventions are an important part of every nursing care plan. From checking vital signs to administering medication, registered nurses (RNs) are expected to perform many different types of interventions when caring for a patient.

What are nursing interventions?

Nursing interventions are simply any action a nurse performs to help patients reach expected outcomes. Providing physical treatments, emotional support, and patient education are all examples of nursing interventions. Nurses typically perform these actions as part of a nursing care plan to monitor and improve their patient’s comfort and health.

What is a nursing care plan?

Nurses develop and follow a nursing care plan as part of the nursing process. Creating and implementing the plan and updating a patient’s record ensures continuity of care for the patient.

According to the American Nurses Association (ANA), a nursing care plan consists of five essential steps:

• Patient assessment: Nurses assess a patient’s physical and emotional state and include any data about the patient that the medical team needs to know.
• Nursing diagnosis: Nurses judge a patient’s health condition and make a nursing diagnosis as defined by NANDA International.
• Patient outcomes: Nurses plan health goals for patients and detail which interventions are needed to help a patient achieve the desired outcome.
• Implementation: Nurses put their care plan into action by completing all necessary interventions.
• Evaluation: Nurses continually monitor a patient’s status and the effectiveness of their nursing care.

A nursing care plan is a guide nurses follow to understand the patient’s condition and how best to care for them. It ensures consistent patient care and clear communication between all medical professionals involved. As a result, nursing interventions are performed during the fourth stage (implementation) of a patient’s care plan.

Types of Nursing Interventions

Nurses perform interventions in a variety of ways for the well-being of their patients. Some treatments might be undertaken alone, while other activities require a doctor’s instruction. A single nurse may work with a patient from beginning to end, or patient care might be a team effort.

You might be expected to perform These three types of nursing interventions as a registered nurse.

Independent Nursing Interventions

Nurses are health care professionals who can act independently when it’s allowed. So, an independent nursing intervention is an action a nurse can perform by themselves, without any management from a doctor or another discipline.

Basic comfort care or taking a patient’s temperature are examples of independent nursing tasks.

Dependent Nursing Interventions

Some interventions require a doctor’s order or directions from other health care professionals before a nurse can perform them. These nursing actions are known as dependent or physician-initiated nursing interventions.

For example, a nurse can’t administer medication or perform a vaccination without the direction of a doctor.

Interdependent Nursing Interventions

Interdependent nursing interventions are also called collaborative interventions. These activities require a team of medical professionals to work together for a patient’s care and full recovery.

When a collaborative intervention is needed, nurses perform tasks under the guidance of different disciplines and ensure communication of patient care between all parties.

Nursing Intervention Examples

Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) is a comprehensive and researched-based publication that details more than 500 interventions across all medical care settings and specialties. NIC provides a standardized classification system for nursing interventions and has been adopted by many medical organizations worldwide.

All nursing interventions defined by NIC are divided into seven specific categories known as domains.

Basic Physiological Nursing Interventions

When a nurse cares for a patient’s physical needs, they perform basic physiological interventions. 

These are hands-on care actions like feeding, bathing, and bedside assistance. Basic physiological interventions ensure a patient is clean and comfortable. This method of care is how nurses ensure patients’ regular physical needs are being met.

Complex Physiological Nursing Interventions

Complicated patient needs require more advanced nursing care. These types of treatments are called complex physiological nursing interventions. 

Administering fluids or medication through an IV is an example of a complex physical health intervention.

Behavioral Nursing Interventions

Behavioral nursing interventions deal with a patient’s unhealthy behaviors or habits. 

Nurses might introduce physical and emotional coping methods to help patients change their behavior. Helping a patient to cope with an addiction is an example of behavioral nursing interventions.

Family Nursing Interventions

Some nursing care duties expand beyond the patient to include family members. This type of care is known as family nursing intervention. 

Helping a mother care for her newborn in the hospital is a great example of a family intervention. Teaching and assisting new mothers helps both the primary patient and her family.

Safety Nursing Interventions

Patient safety is a top priority for registered nurses, no matter how long the patient is under their direct care. 

Safety nursing interventions include everything from fall prevention to teaching family members how to help patients safely recover at home.

Community Nursing Interventions

A community nursing intervention involves more than just patients and their families: It also reaches out to the local population. It’s an initiative usually made by a medical organization to encourage better public health and wellness in the community.

Nurses may help educate or care for the community during these interventions. For example, they could administer vaccines during a free flu shot clinic to help combat illness in the community.

Health System Nursing Interventions

When a nurse is part of an interdependent health care team, they often provide health system nursing interventions. This nursing practice ensures the medical facility is safe and clean for patients. For example, following health system protocols for cleanliness is a nursing intervention that helps prevent infections.

We Make Nursing Intervention Studies Easy

From monitoring a patient’s blood pressure to providing acute care post-surgery, there are hundreds of nursing interventions to learn about as part of your nursing education. 

If you’re preparing to get into nursing school and need help studying for your exams, you can trust SimpleNursing to teach you the fundamentals of nursing and more in an easy-to-learn way.

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How to Write a Nursing Essay Introduction

by ella | Feb 11, 2024 | Medical and Health

Writing an essay starts with making a good introduction. The introduction helps grab the reader’s attention and explains what the essay will be about. In nursing, it’s important to make your introduction clear, interesting, and related to healthcare. This article will guide you on how to write a nursing essay introduction step by step, making it easier to create a good start to your essay. Through simple tips and explanations, you’ll learn how to catch your reader’s interest and prepare them for what you will discuss in your essay. Introductory Paragraph Definition The introductory paragraph is the first part of your essay that readers see. It’s like a door to your essay. When readers go through it, they get to know what topic you’ll be talking about. This paragraph helps catch readers’ attention and gives them a reason to keep reading. It often starts with something interesting, like a surprising fact or a short story. Then, it briefly explains the topic of your essay. Finally, it states your main point or argument, a thesis statement. The introductory paragraph sets the ground for everything else in your essay, making it crucial for getting your readers interested and understanding what to expect as they read on. How Long Should an Introduction Be? When you write an essay, the introduction is the starting point where you tell your readers what the essay is about. Now, how long should this introduction be? A good rule is to make it about 8% to 9% of your essay’s total words. So, if your essay is 1000 words, the introduction would be around 80 to 90 words long. Why this length? Well, it’s long enough to give your readers a clear idea about your topic and get them interested, but not too long that it gets boring or gives away too much information. It’s just the right length to introduce your topic, grab the reader’s attention, and tell them your main argument, the thesis statement, without diving into the main points you’ll discuss in the rest of the essay. What Makes a Good Introduction A good introduction acts like a map that guides your readers into the main part of your essay. Here’s what makes an introduction good:

Catches Attention: A good introduction starts with something interesting to catch your reader’s attention, like a surprising fact, a question, or a short story.

Introduces the Topic: It tells your readers what the essay is about clearly and simply.

Has a Thesis Statement: A good introduction includes a thesis statement and a clear and strong point or argument you will make in your essay. It tells the reader what to expect as they read on.

Not Too Long or Short: It should be just the right essay length, not too long to lose interest, and not too short to miss important information.

Engaging: It should make your readers want to read more. It’s like inviting them into your essay, making them curious about what comes next.

Clear and to the Point: It should be clear, straightforward, and concise so readers can easily understand what the essay will discuss.

Previews What’s Coming: A good introduction previews what topics or points will be covered in the essay without giving away too much.

What Are the 3 Parts of an Introduction Paragraph? The introduction paragraph is important as it helps the reader understand what your essay will be about. It’s made up of three main parts: Part 1: Essay Hook The essay hook in the introduction of a nursing essay acts as a catalyst to ignite the reader’s curiosity and ensure they continue reading. In nursing, this initial hook carries a particular significance as it provides a window into a field that is as emotionally charged as it is technical.  For instance, in a nursing essay focused on patient care, the hook might take the form of a compelling narrative of a nurse’s experience on a hectic night shift. The activities in a ward, the emotions of patients and their families, and amidst it all, the steadfast presence of a nurse could be the scene set as the hook. This imagery captures the essence of nursing and resonates with the reader, drawing them into the narrative. Similarly, if the essay is geared towards exploring the evolving role of nurses in modern healthcare, the hook could present a stark statistic highlighting the growing responsibilities shouldered by nurses. Through the hook, the readers are not merely observers but become emotionally invested, making the subsequent exploration of the nursing profession deeply engaging and insightful. The 5 Types of Hooks for Writing Here are some simple ways to create a hook in your essay:

A Common Misconception: This is about sharing many people’s false beliefs or misunderstandings and correcting them. Example: “Many believe that nurses only follow doctors’ orders, but they make crucial decisions that impact patient care daily.”

Statistics: Sharing a surprising or interesting number or data related to your topic. Example: “Research shows that nurses spend up to 60% of their time on paperwork, taking them away from patient care.”

Personal Story: Telling a brief story from real life or your own experience that connects to your essay topic. Example: “My sister’s caring nature as a nurse brought comfort to fearful patients, making me realize the emotional impact nurses have.”

Scenes: Painting a picture with words about a certain scene or situation related to your topic. Example: “Imagine a busy hospital ward, nurses swiftly moving from one patient to another, showcasing their ability to multitask and provide personalized care.”

Thesis Statement: Stating the main point or argument of your essay in a clear and precise way. Example: “This essay will delve into the indispensable role of nurses in improving the patient experience and healthcare outcomes.”

Part 2: Connections “Connections” in an introduction represent the bridge between the initial hook and the main topic or thesis of the essay. This section further draws the reader into the central theme by establishing context, relevance, and the importance of the subject. It ensures the reader isn’t left hanging after the hook, making the transition smoother. In nursing essays, connections might explore why a particular misconception, statistic, or story (from the hook) is significant to the broader world of nursing or healthcare. For example, suppose the hook was a statistic about the number of hours nurses spend with patients. In that case, the connection might discuss the significance of nurse-patient interactions, how they are at the heart of patient care, or how they can significantly influence a patient’s recovery and overall hospital experience. In essence, the “connections” part links the specific instance or fact from the hook to the broader implications or themes you’re about to explore in your essay, ensuring the reader understands why what they’re about to read matters. Part 3: The Thesis Statement The thesis statement is the most important part of an introduction paragraph. It is usually the last sentence of the introduction. The thesis statement clearly states the main idea or argument of the entire essay in one concise sentence. It answers the prompt or question asked in the assignment.  The thesis sets up the entire essay by establishing the focus and purpose of the writing. A good thesis statement is clear, focused, take a stand or position, and can be supported by evidence. The rest of the essay will provide details, facts, arguments, and evidence that support the thesis statement.  The thesis gives the essay direction and focus. The thesis statement must be narrow enough to fully cover the essay but broad enough for analysis and discussion. The reader should finish the introduction paragraph understanding exactly what the essay will be about based on the thesis statement. Steps to Write an Essay Introduction Here are the steps to write an effective nursing essay introduction: Step 1. Engage Your Reader The opening sentence or “hook” of an introduction paragraph grabs the reader’s attention. A strong hook makes the reader interested and want to keep reading. Here are some tips for engaging the reader right from the start:

Ask a thought-provoking question

Use an interesting, shocking, or intriguing statistic

Open with a relevant quotation, anecdote, fact, news story, vivid description, or definition

Create a conversation, scenario, or narrative to draw the reader in

Use humor, irony, or an unusual perspective to surprise the reader

The goal is to create curiosity, emotion, and connection immediately so the reader feels invested. An engaging hook gives a reason to care about the topic and hooks the reader into wanting to read more. After an attention-grabbing beginning sentence, the introduction can provide context and background to transition smoothly into the essay’s main argument. But a strong, thoughtful hook comes first to capture interest and attention. Step 2. Give Background Information After grabbing the reader’s attention with an opening hook, the next step is to give some context and background information about the essay’s topic. The background should be brief but informative, helping the reader understand the topic and its significance.  The background information should be connected to and help frame the essay’s main argument. It allows the writer to define key terms, frame the scope, provide historical context, or share social/political background before transitioning to the essay’s thesis.  The goal is to orient the reader without overloading them with too many details at the start. A few concise but meaningful sentences of background can set the stage before delivering the essay’s central argument in the thesis statement. Step 3. Expose Your Thesis Statement The thesis statement is the most integral part of an introduction. It comes at the end of the intro paragraph and establishes the essay’s central argument or main point. The thesis directly responds to the prompt or question posed in the assignment. It lays out the essay’s key position and focus in one concise, declarative statement. All the background information should lead up to and frame this thesis. This thesis takes a clear stand while summarizing the main argument. The rest of the essay will provide evidence and analysis to support and develop this position. The thesis statement gives the reader insight into the essay’s purpose and direction. It must be argumentative, focused, and thoughtful – a signpost for the essay’s content. With an engaging hook, informative background, and clear thesis statement, an introduction orients readers and sets an essay up for success. Step 4. Draft Your Essay Structure After writing a solid thesis statement, the next step is to map out the main points supporting and developing that central argument throughout the essay. Planning the basic structure gives the writer a logical progression and flow for the essay’s body paragraphs. For example, each body paragraph could contain a major reason why the thesis is true. Drafting a basic outline ensures the essay will thoroughly explain the thesis. The structure provides organization and direction. While the outline may change as the essay develops, having a planned structure guides the writer. The introduction doesn’t need to preview the full outline, but the thesis should directly lead to the topics of the body paragraphs. This continuity reinforces the central argument and establishes the logical support and analysis to validate the essay’s claim. Step 5. Revise After drafting the introduction paragraph, including an opening hook, background information, thesis statement, and outline, the next step is to revise. Revising allows the writer to strengthen and refine the introduction. Here are tips for revising an essay introduction:

Make sure the hook immediately draws in the reader.

Check that background info is brief but informative. Cut unimportant details.

Read the thesis statement carefully. Is it clear, focused, arguable, and well-written?

Ensure the thesis directly answers the prompt or assignment question.

Review that the essay outline logically flows from the thesis.

Check for varied sentence structure and smooth transitions between sentences.

Ensure the introduction is written in the student’s original, unique voice.

Ask – does this intro give the reader essential context and clearly state the essay’s central argument?

Revising the introduction allows the writer to catch any underdeveloped, awkward, or unclear areas. Refining the intro before writing the full essay ensures the foundation is established to convince readers of the thesis logically. Catchy Introductions for Different Essay Types Here are some examples of writing catchy introductions tailored to different essay types: Narrative Introduction The lights were bright and the room was freezing. I could hear the muffled cries of the two-day-old infant in the incubator beside me as I carefully calculated the dosage. This was my first time administering medication on the job as a nursing student in the NICU. I knew neonatal nursing would be challenging, but I realized in that moment it would also reshape my perspective.

The fragility of life was tangible, yet amidst wires and monitors, there was hope. This experience taught me that something as small as an injection has the power to heal and comfort. My nursing journey began with that first nervous med pass late one night in the NICU, starting me on a path I could not yet fully envision. This introduction establishes the narrative scene while hinting at the insights explored in the essay. The hook places the reader in the story while introducing the reflective tone and theme. The background about starting nursing school and working in the intensive care unit provides context. The thesis hints at a transformative experience that led to a new understanding, setting up the reflective narrative about this memory’s significance. The introduction draws readers into the moment while establishing the personal growth narrative to come. Analytical Introduction The current nursing shortage in the United States has reached critical levels, with the deficit of registered nurses projected to exceed 500,000 by 2025. This shortage impacts healthcare facilities nationwide, diminishing the quality of care and patient outcomes. While an aging workforce and increased healthcare demands contribute to the problem, the root causes are unsatisfactory working environments, leading to high turnover rates.

Inadequate staffing ratios, lack of leadership support, workplace violence, and burnout exacerbate nurse shortages. However, developing effective retention strategies to improve modifiable workplace factors could help healthcare organizations recruit and retain qualified nurses. Targeted interventions to empower nurses and cultivate supportive, collaborative environments will be essential to overcoming the nursing shortage crisis. This introduction establishes the nursing shortage problem and notes some surface-level contributing factors. The thesis then points to underlying workplace environment issues as the root causes. This analytical stance sets the essay to examine these modifiable factors and the solutions they highlight rather than just describing the problem. The introduction primes readers for an analytical discussion on empowering nursing workplace improvements. Persuasive Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed cracks in the foundation of the United States healthcare system. Addressing the longstanding nurse staffing crisis has become urgent as nurses comprise the largest segment of the health workforce. For decades, research has shown inadequate nurse staffing increases patient and nurse risks. However, hospitals and legislators have delayed mandating minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. With recent data revealing up to 20% of nurses plan to leave their positions, safe staffing levels are imperative.

Implementing minimum staffing ratios in every unit, improving work environments, and increasing wages can retain experienced nurses, attract new nurses, and ensure safe patient care. Now is the time to persuade lawmakers and healthcare administrators to enact evidence-based nurse staffing ratio legislation. Doing so will strengthen nursing, prevent future gaps in care, and ultimately save lives. This introduction uses the COVID-19 pandemic context to establish the urgent need for minimum staffing ratios. It references past research and alarming turnover data to highlight the significance of the problem. This leads to the thesis advocating minimum ratio legislation to improve staffing conditions and nurse retention. The intro generates urgency while summarizing the persuasive argument to come – that evidence shows implementing specific nurse staffing reforms will strengthen healthcare. Personal Introduction I remember the sterile smell of the hospital hallway as I walked into my patient’s room for the first time. As a nursing student, I had prepared extensively for this initial clinical rotation. I had memorized lab values, medications, and procedures. Yet textbook knowledge could not prepare me for the wave of nerves I felt seeing my patient lying in the stark, white hospital bed. She looked weary and frail. This was no rubber dummy I had practiced on. This was a living, breathing human who needed my care.

My textbook training came second to forging a true human connection at that moment. Sitting beside her, I listened as she shared her story, goals, and worries. The beeping monitors faded, and I saw her as so much more than a diagnosis. My first clinical rotation taught me that treating patients extends beyond treating their illnesses. In nursing, empathy and compassion for humanity manifest as acts of care. This personal nursing essay introduction draws readers into a poignant clinical scene. It sets up the student’s transition from textbook knowledge to human understanding. The vivid details and reflections establish the introspective tone and theme focused on compassion in nursing care. Tips for Writing a Winning Introduction Paragraph Here are some tips for writing an effective introduction paragraph that grabs attention and sets the stage for the essay:

Start with a strong, thought-provoking hook. Open with an interesting fact, statistic, question, an essay quote, anecdote, vivid description, etc.

Provide brief but valuable context and background on the topic. Define key terms and give relevant historical or social framing.

Build a smooth transition from the background to the specific focus of the essay. Use transitional phrases like “In light of this…”

State the thesis clearly and directly. Present the central argument or position in a concise, one-sentence statement.

Ensure the thesis responds to the prompt and launches the essay’s body.

Structure the introduction logically, moving from a broad to an increasingly narrow focus.

Engage the reader’s interest while also communicating the essay’s purpose.

Revise thoroughly to refine language, improve flow, and bolster impact.

An effective introduction grabs attention, provides a framework, presents a compelling thesis, and primes readers for future discussion. Crafting a thoughtful, polished introduction can get any essay off to a winning start. Final Thoughts The introduction of your nursing essay is your chance to grab the reader’s attention, provide insight into your chosen topic, and set the stage for the following discussion. It’s crucial to nail this part to make a compelling first impression. However, it’s a common struggle for many nursing students to pen down an engaging introduction amidst demanding academic and practical schedules. Struggling to Start Your Nursing Essay? Kickstart your nursing essay with an introduction that resonates. Click Here to Secure a Strong Start with Our Expert Assistance! Let us pave the way for your academic achievements.

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Assessing the patient's needs and planning effective care

Benjamin Ajibade

Senior Lecturer, Mental Health Nursing, Northumbria University

View articles · Email Benjamin

Nurses have an essential role to play in the assessment and planning of patient care. This is emphasised in the Nursing and Midwifery Council's 2018Future Nurse proficiency standards. In this article, the author discusses the importance of person-centred care in assessing needs and highlights the need for all nursing interventions to be evidence based. The topics covered include assessing people's needs, care planning, stages of care planning, benefits of care planning, models of care, care pathways, and care clustering in mental health care. The article also highlights the significance of record-keeping.

The central role of nurses in assessing patient needs and planning care is one of the core areas emphasised in Future Nurse, the Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) (2018a) nursing proficiency standards. The document categorises ‘assessing needs and planning care’ as the third of seven areas of proficiency, which are grouped into ‘platforms’. Future Nurse emphasises that the delivery of person-centred care and evidence-based nursing interventions are vital components for effective patient assessment and care planning. The standards further highlight that the nurse should understand the need to assess each patient's capacity to make their own decisions and to allow them the opportunity to give and withdraw consent.

An assessment is a form of a dialogue between client and practitioner, in which they discuss the needs of the former to promote their wellbeing and what they expect to happen in their daily life ( National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), 2021 ). Nursing assessment involves collecting data from the patient and analysing the information to identify the patient's needs, which are sometimes described as problems.

The process of planning care employs different strategies to resolve the needs identified as part of an assessment. Ideally, this will include the selection of appropriate evidence-based nursing interventions. When planning care, the patient's needs and wishes should be prioritised, and the individual must be involved in the decision-making process to ensure a person-centred approach. The planned care must take into account the patient's conditions, personal attributes and choices. It is worth noting that the principles of care planning are transferable between hospital, home and care home settings.

Section 2 of the NMC Code highlights the importance of partnership working with patients to ensure the delivery of effective high-quality care and of involving them in their care, which includes empowering patients by enabling them to make their own decisions ( NMC, 2018b ). The patient should be viewed holistically, with importance placed on the physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of the person's life, which are inextricable.

The intrinsic factors of a patient's condition will often affect their concordance with the advice and treatment offered. Consequently, it is important to understand the reasons for non-concordance and to tailor treatments/recommendations to each individual, which will improve the quality of care delivered.

Brooker (2007) developed the acronym VIPS to address some of the confusion surrounding what should or should not be perceived as person-centred care. VIPS stresses the following:

• V is a value base that affirms the value of each human being, irrespective of age and cognitive ability. This is the foundation for individualised care
• I is individualised care that considers the individual's distinctiveness and holistic needs
• P is about seeing the world from the patient's perspective, to ensure that the health professional takes the patient's point of view into account when providing care
• S is about maintaining a social environment that supports the patient's psychological needs, including their mental, emotional and spiritual needs.

Health professionals should endeavour to involve the patient in decision-making and enable them to make choices as much as possible, using a range of approaches to achieve this ( Lloyd, 2010 ). Unless proven otherwise, a nurse must assume that a patient has the capacity to make their own decisions, in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

The following draws on the author's experience in mental health nursing but can be applied to other areas of nursing care.

Care planning

Planning care is essential in the delivery of appropriate nursing care. Following assessment of a patient's needs, the next stage is to ‘plan care’ to address the actual and potential problems that have been identified. This helps to prioritise the client's needs and assists in setting person-centred goals. Planned care will change as a patient's needs change and as the nurse and/or other health professionals identify new needs. Care planning assists professionals to communicate information about the patient's care to others ( Department of Health (DH), 2013a ; NICE, 2021 ), to facilitate continuity of care. Communication may be predominantly verbal, but it will also always involve documentation in a variety of formats, including computer-based, handwritten or preprinted care plans.

It is essential for nurses to consider their consultation style when developing a care plan in order to reduce the risk of paternalism when communicating with the patient and discussing their needs. Collaborative consultation encourages patients to participate in their care and improves rapport, while a paternalistic approach will generally minimise an individual's part in, and responsibility for, their own care needs and may compromise care outcomes and concordance ( Leach, 2010 ). A collaborative/partnership consultation style facilitates a person-centred approach by the practitioners and involves the patient in their care. Such an approach can include asking questions such as: ‘We have different types of treatment approaches that could be considered, what are your preferences?’ This is in contrast to a paternalistic consultation style with the health professional announcing any decisions with a statement such as: ‘I am going to prescribe a certain treatment for you.’

When drawing up a care plan with a patient the nurse should take into account a number of considerations ( Box 1 ).

Box 1.Nursing considerations

• The patient should know the reason for the assessment
• The assessment should be flexible and adaptable to the needs of the individual
• The patient must be fully involved and their dignity, independence, and interests should be paramount
• The patient can have someone with them, if preferred
• Appropriate language and terminologies should be used throughout the consultation
• The diversity of the individual client, their beliefs, values, culture and their circumstances must be considered
• It is essential to consider the patient's gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability and religion as part of the assessment
• Be open to listening to the patient's personal history and life story
• The entire family's needs should be considered, inclusive of the patient and their carers: remember the importance of providing holistic care
• Cost-effectiveness should also be taken into account

Sources: Department of Health, 2011; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2021

Stages of care planning

Care planning has been described as the third stage of the nursing process ( NMC, 2018a ; Toney-Butler and Thayer, 2021 ). It includes assessing the patient's needs, identifying the problem(s), setting goals, developing evidence-based interventions and evaluating outcomes ( Matthews, 2010 ). This will require the health professional to apply high-level critical thinking, decision-making and problem-solving skills. It is important to note that a care plan can be prescriptive: it is devised after a patient has been assessed through the prescription of nursing actions ( Hogston and Simpson, 2002 ) or through collaborative working involving the multidisciplinary team.

In some situations there will be differences between what the nurse sees as a priority in terms of the patient's needs and what the patient wants. An example of this would be a patient with mental health problems who may be at high risk of self-harm, who may need to be put on intermittent 15-minute observation. In such cases, a patient would be deemed as not having capacity to make decisions and the nurse will need to use their clinical judgement to prescribe the best treatment option. The care plan can still be agreed in conjunction with the patient once the nurse has explained the reasons for the interventions and acknowledged in the care plan that this is not the patient's preferred choice.

In situations where the patient has capacity to make decisions, the care plan should be agreed in collaboration with the service user ( NHS England, 2016a ).

Identifying needs

As part of the care planning process, the nurse will identify a patient's needs/problems and propose a set of interventions to address them in order of priority, ensuring that everything is in agreement with the patient. To ensure that appropriate goals are set, a patient's needs will be classified as high, intermediate and low.

Each goal provides an indication as to the expected outcome, along with the proposed interventions required to meet the patient's problems/needs, all of which must be patient centred. It is important, in collaboration with the patient, to set both short-term, achievable goals and longer-term goals that may take days, weeks or months to accomplish. One way nurses can ensure this is to apply the SMART goal-setting approach to ensure that the goals are ( Revello and Fields, 2015 ; NurseChoice, 2018 ):

• M easurable
• A chievable
• T imely (within a defined time frame).

Interventions

Interventions are nursing actions/procedures or treatments built on clinical judgement and knowledge, performed to meet the needs of patients. The actions should be evidence based and indicate who will carry them out, when and how often ( Hogston and Simpson, 2002 ). The scheduled interventions will have been agreed with the patient with the aim of improving their health condition, and each subsequent action should strive to meet the goals set at the previous stage. Brooks (2019) outlined three types of intervention:

• Those independently initiated by nurses
• Those that are dependent on a physician or other health professionals
• Those that are interdependent, that is, those rely on the experience, skills and knowledge of multiple professionals.

Independent nursing interventions are planned and actioned by nurses autonomously ( NMC, 2018a ), and these actions do not require the nurse to have direction from another health professional. When actioning interventions dependent on other health professionals, the nurses must determine the appropriateness of any directions from other health professionals before carrying them out because the nurse remains accountable for the actions, for example, the administration of prescribed medication ( NMC, 2018a ). Due to developments in the nursing profession, some advanced nurse practitioners can now prescribe interventions, eg prescription of medication can be done by nurse independent prescribers or nurse supplementary prescribers ( Royal College of Nursing, 2014 ). Interdependent interventions are usually recorded in collaborative care plans reviewed in multidisciplinary (MDT) meetings and must be agreed by all parties involved. Both the goals and interventions must be communicated in a timely manner to all those involved in the patient's care.

This is the stage when a planned intervention is evaluated to assess whether or not it has been achieved. This can be an ongoing process, and the care plan should document the frequency and time frame for evaluating the intervention. If the initial goal becomes unachievable, the nurse will be required to reassess the patient's needs, and review and revise the interventions.

Benefits of care planning

The DH (2011) highlighted that the aim of care planning is to improve the quality of care and outcomes by respecting individual wishes and enabling patients to acknowledge the ownership of their condition and ensuring they have the ability to influence the outcomes. Health professionals should engage individuals in decision-making and facilitate them to take control of their health by agreeing common goals to improve outcomes. This will have additional benefits for both the patient and health services as it should reduce the number of GP appointments and emergency admissions the patient may require. Promoting self-management of long-term conditions can also help slow progression of illness.

Care planning empowers patients to care for themselves when they are self-managing their health and when they may have difficulty accessing a health professional. This became evident during the pandemic, with patients often having to go for extended periods between appointments with their health professionals. Care planning has really come into its own in community care in the past few years, which became evident during the pandemic—particularly in the field of mental health—because it leads to better patient concordance with treatment and other care needs without the need for constant input by health professionals. This benefits both health professionals and the NHS: it increases job satisfaction, brings efficiency savings and improves the quality of patient care ( DH, 2011 ).

Model of care

Models of care are used to deliver best practice in health care. An integrated services care model is multifaceted and enables the co-ordination of care by different health and social care professionals to meet individual patient needs. It encompasses patient-centred care and enables care staff across different providers to reduce duplication, confusion, delay and gaps in services ( Monitor, 2015 ). In the modern NHS, this is the preferred model of care.

The care plan is an integral part of this model because it enables the creation of shared care plans that map different care processes. It becomes a point of reference for various providers involved in the care of the patients, ensuring the co-ordination of care across services ( Curry and Ham, 2010 ; World Health Organization, 2016 ).

Care pathways

Care pathways, which are also known as critical pathways, clinical pathways, integrated care pathways, care paths and care maps, are used to describe a specific patient journey that dictates the care to be provided or process to be followed for a patient's particular condition or needs. An evidence-based care process is established for specific conditions by considering expert opinion that takes into account the evidence to recommend interventions that have been shown to achieve better health outcomes cost-effectively ( Centre for Policy on Ageing, 2014 ).

Care pathways are often developed at local level and have been shown to be efficacious at meeting local needs. They are also known to improve cross-setting collaborations. Clinical pathways are aimed at providing effective health care appropriate for the patient group of conditions, thereby reducing hospital stays, leading to cost-effective health care ( Kozier et al, 2008 ).

Care clusters

Care clustering is a needs assessment tool that is used to rate a patient's care need against specific scales:

‘A cluster is a global description of a group of people with similar characteristics as identified from a holistic assessment and then rated using the Mental Health Clustering Tool (MHCT).’

NHS England, 2016b

This framework is used to plan and organise mental health services, including the care and support provided to individuals based on their illness and individual needs. One of the care clustering tools used in the NHS is the Health of the Nations Outcome Scales (HoNOS) ( Wing et al, 1998 ; Yeomans, 2014 ; NHS England, 2016b ).

Mental health services were brought under the scope of Payment by Results (PbR) in the NHS in 2012-2013.

‘Payment by Results (PbR) is the transparent rules-based payment system in England under which commissioners pay healthcare providers for each patient seen or treated, taking into account the complexity of the patient's healthcare needs.’

Consequently, as part of the care planning process, nurses need to take into account the cost-effectiveness of any interventions in order to consider how much funding is likely to be available for an initial completion of assessments, during scheduled reassessment and at any subsequent reassessment after a significant change in the patient's needs.

Box 2.Importance of complying with guidelines when undertaking assessment and planning care

• You must be compliant with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2018b ; 2021 ) guidelines for record and record-keeping
• Adhere to the employing local organisation's policy on record-keeping, eg local trust policy
• Follow the NHS trust Care Programme Approach (CPA) policy ( Department of Health, 2008 )
• Collaborate with all those involved in a patient's care planning process

Importance of record-keeping

Accurate record-keeping is essential in the assessment of needs and planning care. This complies with the NMC (2018b) which states that record-keeping is fundamental to nursing practice, emphasising that records must be accurate and precise.

Health professionals should be aware of the need for legal accountability when documenting care in a written record because such records could be used in any legal proceedings ( Dimond, 2005 ). A record refers to not only a patient's record, but encompasses all records related to an individual nurse's range of practice. It is important to include the person being cared for in the record-keeping process, who should be asked to sign the plan of care, if they have capacity to do so ( NMC, 2021 ).

It is good practice to make an entry in the care documentation if a service user is unable to sign or agree to their planned care and state the reason for this ( Butterworth, 2012 ). In addition to paper-based records, care plans can be entered into the electronic health/patient record system used in the practitioner's service ( NHS website, 2019 ).

Best practice in writing care plans

There are some critical factors to consider when writing a focused person-centred care plan. One of these is to clearly document in detail the needs of the patient and to use the patient's language whenever possible, for example: ‘Mr D likes to dress smart every morning, but has been finding it difficult to make the choice of clothing to wear.’ An example of a poor way to record the same issue might be: ‘Mr D is unable to dress by himself’ and the aim is ‘Mr D will appear to dress smartly’.

The documented goal/aim of the care plan should be determined by applying the SMART acronym. It is therefore vital to ensure that the aim is specific by focusing on issues that can be measured, with goals that are achievable and realistic. It is also important to suggest and record a time frame within which a patient's short-term and long-term goals could be achieved. In relations to Mr D's clothing, a daily time frame might be appropriate. To come to an agreement over this issue, Mr D might be asked: ‘Mr D, would you like to be able to make your own choice of clothes to wear every day with the support of staff?’ The projected daily goal would then be recorded as part of the care plan documentation.

An intervention must specify how a goal/aim will be achieved, including who will be responsible for implementing each task. This could be the staff nurse on duty, team nurse, team leader, the nurse in charge and/or the patient (please put the patient's name). Evaluation should be carried out regularly and documented, and should conform with the proposed time frame outlined as part of the suggested intervention. Evaluations should be undertaken whenever actions are performed in accordance with each proposed intervention, and details of the progress of the patient's problem/needs documented.

In conclusion, the article has discussed the importance of assessing patients' needs, emphasising person-centred care using the VIPS acronym devised by Brooker (2007) . It has stressed the notion for all nursing interventions to be evidence based. The stages of care planning were discussed, and the application of the SMART goal-setting approach was highlighted. Record-keeping is an integral part of care planning in the communication of patient's care and progress. The benefits of care planning in improving quality of care and outcomes, respecting individual wishes, thereby empowering the patient was recognised.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Nurses must ensure that assessment of patient needs and care planning are always focused on the person
• All nursing interventions must be evidence based
• The goals set out in a patient's care plan must be achievable and measurable, and should include time frames within which both short- and long-term goals can be achieved
• Record-keeping is a vital component of care planning and is part of communicating aspects of a patient's care, and their progress towards their goals, with other health professionals involved in their care

CPD reflective questions

• In the context of a patient's health, what should you aim to do when care planning?
• Who should you involve in the care planning and why? Should the patient have a copy of the care plan?
• Is it acceptable to destroy care plans or other records?
• When should care plans be reviewed?