From care plan to concept map: A paradigm shift

Nurses and nursing student must develop and write nursing care plan to provide and organize nursing interventions. Nursing care plans serve as a means of communicating patient care needs between members of the interdisciplinary care team. Traditional linear care plans did not met the educational and functional needs of current nursing students. In an effort to improve nursing students’ clinical reasoning and recognition of interrelatedness of patient data, the traditional care plan format was changed to concept mapping. This article describes the integration of concept mapping in an Associate Degree Nursing program.