A Nursing Care Plans informs about the nursing care that has to be administered to the patient, who is suffering from an ailment. The plan is basically a list of actions, which the nurse would be applying to resolve, identified nursing problems through assessment. The plan assists continuing nursing care actions provisions and the care evaluation process.
The main characteristics of a quality nursing care plan can be summed up as follows:

• The main aim of plan is to minimize or solve existing problem suffered by the patient.
• The plan continues with other systematic process.
• The actions of the plan are based on future implementation.
• The plan is based on known nursing and health problems.                                                         .

Today, the nursing care plan in USA may consist of Nanda Nursing Diagnosis or Care Plan. The care plan may have certain related factors, along with subjective and objective data that supports the nursing care and its specific outcome or goal, which will be achieved within the stipulated time period and particular nursing interventions that will have to be carried, to meet the goal.

The exact and valid nursing care helps the selection of interventions, which can provide desired result and decide nurse sensitive intervention. For the future based professional nursing care, nursing diagnosis can be termed as key for ensuring patient safety and meeting the requirements of the patient. In the present day, electronic health record standardization of patient terminology, Nanda, NOC and NIC offers the way to collect the nursing data, which can be thoroughly analyzed in multiple health care organizations. These procedures also help in collection of essential data for analysis, cost/benefit and clinical audit.

Formation of Nursing Care Plan

• The plan is formulated after the collection of all subjective and objective data.
• Collected data is organized in systematic pattern

Such steps helps in ascertaining the field, where the patient needs nursing care and accordingly nursing diagnosis is prepared by the nurse. The complete nursing diagnosis also includes specific evidence and related factors that prompts nursing diagnosis. These diagnoses may be listed in Nanda list of diagnosis.

Nursing Care Plan bears the characteristics of Assessment, Diagnosis, Planning, Intervention and Evaluation.

After deciding on nursing diagnosis by using Symptom, Problem and Etiology system, the nurse will have to set outcome goal. The approximate date must also be fixed to ascertain the goal.

After the goal is set, nursing process must be established. This process or nursing plan should have the objective of providing nursing care for the patient’s recovery. The nursing care process objective must be specific, so that any nurse can understand the plan easily and implement the direction with ease and in exact manner.

The evaluation of the Nursing Care Plan is carried out on the goal date set. The evaluation aim is to find, whether the goal has been achieved or should the plan should be continued further, modified or must be discontinued.