Attitudes of registered nurses who practise in acute care hospitals in an urban centre of Manitoba towards writing nursing care plans

Abstract

The purpose of this description correlational study was to describe the attitudes of general duty, registered nurses (RNs) who practise in acute care settings in an urban Manitoban centre toward writing nursing care plans (NCPs) and their self-reported NCP writing/revising behaviour. The relationship between the identified attitudes toward writing NCPs and the self-reported NCP writing/revising behaviours also was examined. It was anticipated that answers to these questions would assist in determining the degree of acceptability of the nursing care plan (NCP) as a communication tool to practising, general duty RNs and its utility to them. As well it would describe whether the RNs reported writing/revising NCPs as prescribed by both professional nursing and hospital accreditation standards... The use of the nursing process, described as the core methodology of nursing practice, and the documentation and use of a NCP for each patient by the professional nurse have been incorporated into Canadian professional nursing and hospital accreditation standards (Canadian Nurses Association, 1987; Canadian Council on Health Facilities Accreditation, 1992). The literature reveals that historically the ideological and practical uses of both the nursing process and the NCP have been debated and that NCPs are not written consistently... The results indicated that the RNs had positive attitudes towards writing/revising NCPs; however, NCPs were not written/revised for patients on a regular basis. A weak, positive linear relationship existed between the two variables (r = .2334 p = .01). Over 75% of the RNs used NCPs to help them provide patient care. Qualitative analysis revealed themes related to the RNs' thoughts about the NCP; how they used or why they did not use the NCP as a guide; and information desired on a NCP. Based upon these findings implications for nursing practice, education, research, administration and nursing were discussed.