Nursing Self Care Plan

Care planning is an essential part of healthcare, and is usually the responsibility of the nurse. Without a care plan, important aspects of care are likely to be neglected. A care plan provides a road map from where you are to where you want to be. In order for you to change your habits and improve your self-care you will need to develop your own self-care plan.

Step One: First you need to identify those areas of your life that are causing stress, damaging your health or that you know you need to change in order to reduce stress, increase wellness activities and practice self-care. In other words, do your own assessment of yourself and identify any problems. These are your Self-Care Deficits.

Step Two: Now you set a goal for that problem. Be sure the goal is specific, measurable and attainable. For instance, if you identified that you are not getting enough sleep you may want a goal that says…keep a sleep journal and record the time I go to bed and the time I wake up each day. The second goal for this problem may be, get 7 hours of sleep each night. Now, if you have a newborn and know that this isn't possible, set a realistic goal perhaps for 6 hours of sleep, which may mean going to bed earlier than you are used to (an activity). Clear, measurable goals are an important step in changing your habits and improving your self-care.

Step Three: Now comes the fun part. Think of activities or interventions that will help you reach your goal. Consider possible activities from a body, mind and spirit approach. In the example above, not getting enough sleep, you may have activities such as; speak to neighbor about barking dog, get room darkening shade, go to bed at 10PM every night, eliminate news broadcasts before bedtime or listen to relaxation tape before bedtime, just to name a few.

To create your own self-care plan click on the link to take you to that page and then you can complete the form online and then print it for yourself. Access the Nursing Self-Care Plan here.