Nursing Care Plan for Anxiety Psychological Interventions

Whether you are a registered nurse, licensed practical/vocational nurse, or still a nursing student, creating an effective nursing care plan is an essential function in providing great patient care. When dealing with the psychological aspects of a patient's treatment, however, things can become a little more complicated. Here you will find some important considerations and useful information for creating a nursing care plan, including psychological interventions, for patients suffering from anxiety.

Function and Basics of Psychological Care Plans

• Nursing care plans are designed to provide the nursing team with a well-defined set of goals and interventions that are specifically tailored to each individual patient. The nature of mental illness and psychological nursing demand even greater attention to a unique, individualized care plan, so it is important to gather a thorough and complete history from the patient and her family, and to discuss the patient's goals and expectations for treatment and care, before even beginning to write the nursing care plan.

  A psychological nursing care plan will be similar in structure to any other nursing care plan, in that you will clearly define treatment goals and identify appropriate interventions. However, psychological care plans can be a little more difficult to create because you must find a way to translate often ambiguous symptoms and treatment objectives into practical, realistic goals and interventions. Additionally, when evaluating the outcomes of the implemented care plan, you must rely heavily on the patient's self-assessment of symptoms to determine the effectiveness of any interventions.

  Effective and useful psychological nursing care plans can be created, though, and can be very helpful to the nursing staff, as well as the patient.

Scope of Practice

• One of the most difficult aspects of creating psychological nursing care plans for patients with anxiety, that many nurses struggle with, is maintaining compliance with scope of practice. For instance, many states' nursing regulations provide clearly defined distinctions between what kinds of psychological care (including diagnoses) doctors and nurses can provide, and even between what care registered nurses and licensed practical/vocational nurses can provide. If you are in doubt about whether a particular proposed intervention falls within your scope of practice, contact your director of nursing and the board of nursing in your state.

  However, many interventions typical for patients suffering from different types of anxiety, such as offering encouragement to engage in social support groups, teaching patients relaxation methods, and providing a quiet place for patients to go when suffering an anxiety/panic attack, are well within any state's nursing scope of practice, and have often proved very useful. Most psychological nursing interventions are based on common sense and compassion, and will include the kinds of things you would do for a loved one or friend who was suffering from anxiety.

Defining Goals and Interventions

• As previously mentioned, though, the part most nurses have trouble with when creating care plans is translating ambiguous ideas into practical methods. All goals and interventions should be specific and realistically achievable. Goals that are impossible for the patient or nursing staff to achieve, or to clearly demonstrate that they have achieved, are more likely to hinder the progress of a psychological patient than help.

  In addition to being realistic and achievable, try to make goals very specific. For example, let's say you have a patient who suffers from anxiety, and has frequent anxiety/panic attacks (three to four per day). "Patient will have reduced anxiety," is a realistic and achievable goal, but "Patient will report fewer than two anxiety/panic attacks per day" is much more specific and measurable, and allows the nursing staff to focus on interventions that will reduce or eliminate the triggers/causes of the patient's anxiety/panic attacks.

  It is also important to remember that, while a patient should be included in the development of treatment and care plan goals, the nursing care plan is primarily used as a guideline for the nursing staff and thus, should be mostly comprised of goals and interventions that the nursing staff can perform or have a direct impact on. As an example, the goal--"Patient will maintain compliance with medication regimen"--may seem dependent upon the patient, but interventions such as the following allow the nursing staff to take an active role in helping the patient to achieve this goal and providing prudent, practical nursing care:

  "Nursing staff will administer medications as directed by physician/psychiatrist."
  "Nursing staff will remain with patient until medication has been swallowed or refused."
  "Nursing staff will educate patient regarding adverse health or psychological effects of non-compliance with prescribed medications."

  Conclusively, an effective psychological nursing care plan can be created as long as you remember to remain within your scope of practice and define specific, realistic and achievable goals and interventions.