Schizophrenia Nursing Care Plan

What is a Schizophrenia Nursing Care Plan Template?

A Schizophrenia Nursing Care Plan Template is a structured document or framework used by nurses and healthcare professionals to outline individualized care and interventions for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. It serves as a guide to ensure comprehensive and effective care delivery tailored to each patient's specific needs.

Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder that affects and alters a person's thinking patterns, perception of information, emotional responses, and behavior. The disorder has various types, each with its own distinct clinical features. The symptoms of schizophrenia are labeled under two categories: positive symptoms and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms add to reality and encompass experiences like hallucinations or delusions. On the other hand, negative symptoms involve a decline or absence of abilities, such as reduced motivation, loss of interest, poor hygiene, and difficulties in concentration.

The origins of schizophrenia involve various proposed causes. Studies indicate a genetic link, with relatives of individuals with schizophrenia having a 5 to 10% likelihood of developing the disorder. Factors like prenatal viruses, birth defects, brain structural irregularities, and environmental influences such as adverse socioeconomic conditions, abuse, or neglect can also contribute to its onset

In nursing, addressing both mental and physical health conditions concurrently is common practice. Patients requiring specific treatment for schizophrenia often require inpatient care in a behavioral health unit. The field of behavioral/mental health nursing requires specialized skills to communicate effectively with unstable patients while ensuring safety. This involves navigating comorbidities related to mental illness and physical conditions.

 An in-depth nursing care plan for schizophrenia may encompass the following:

• Impaired social interaction care plan
• Disturbed sensory perception (audio/visual) care plan
• Risk for self / other-directed violence

How does it work?

Step One: Gather your resources

Schizophrenia nursing care plans are a valuable resource and essential in the mental health sector. Make sure that you have a copy of the free printable PDF when the need arises by either clicking the “Download Template” or “Use Template” button or by searching “ schizophrenia nursing care plan” on Carepatron’s template library’s search bar on the website or app.

Step Two: Collate essential information

Once the patient has been referred to a mental health team or specialist staff member, utilizing the schizophrenia nursing care plan template to ensure all goals of care are met is seamless and easily accessible to relevant parties via Carepatron’s centralized workspace. The patient's information can be collected and stored within the document, and relevant aspects of the care plan can be charted. Depending on the type of care intervention needed, the care plan will highlight symptoms, expected outcomes, assessment, and interventions. 

Step Three: Store the chartsSecurely

After reviewing the schizophrenia nursing care plan and creating a viable and individualized plan for the patient, you need to secure the plan so that access is only granted to relevant parties. 

Ensure this through Carepatrons HIPAA-compliant free patient records software. Here, all relevant medical records can be safely stored and collated for ease and security.

Schizophrenia Nursing Care Plan example (sample)

Eager to utilize this essential care planning tool? Acquire a free, downloadable, and printable schizophrenia nursing care plan template PDF that comes pre-filled with fictional data.

Our crafted sample template is designed to aid you in efficiently utilizing the chart and evaluating the goals of care and interventions for patients with schizophrenia. It includes dedicated sections for clinical notes and outlines the key components of an efficient nursing care plan. 

Secure your copy by either previewing the sample below or clicking the "Download Example PDF" button.

Download our Schizophrenia Nursing Care Plan example PDF

When would you use this template?

A Schizophrenia Nursing Care Plan is utilized in various scenarios and stages of care for individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. Here are some scenarios where the implementation of a care plan is crucial:

Upon diagnosis

When a patient is diagnosed with schizophrenia, healthcare professionals create a care plan to initiate appropriate interventions and support tailored to the individual's needs.

Inpatient or acute care

During inpatient treatment in a behavioral health unit or acute care setting, a nursing care plan helps guide the provision of comprehensive care, including medication management, monitoring, and interventions to manage symptoms.

Transition from inpatient to outpatient care

A care plan is crucial when transitioning patients from inpatient to outpatient care settings. It helps ensure continuity of care, follow-up appointments, and ongoing support.

Long-term management

Individuals with schizophrenia often require ongoing, long-term care. A nursing care plan aids in managing symptoms, monitoring medication adherence, promoting self-care, and preventing relapses.

Supporting self-management

Care plans can assist patients in learning self-management techniques to cope with symptoms and adhere to treatment regimens while living independently or with minimal support.

Crisis intervention and prevention

In situations where patients experience crises or exacerbations of symptoms, a care plan guides healthcare providers in crisis intervention strategies to ensure patient safety and stabilization.

Coordinating multidisciplinary care

Schizophrenia care often involves multiple healthcare providers and specialists. A nursing care plan facilitates coordination among various healthcare professionals to ensure a holistic approach to care.

Family and caregiver education

Care plans include provisions for educating family members and caregivers on schizophrenia, its management, and ways to support the individual, fostering a supportive environment.

A Schizophrenia Nursing Care Plan is instrumental at various stages of care, from initial diagnosis to long-term management, crisis intervention, and coordination of care among different healthcare providers. Its purpose is to provide personalized, comprehensive, and coordinated care to individuals living with schizophrenia.

What do the Results mean?

A schizophrenia nursing care plan can be used for multiple reasons, but most commonly for the following symptoms and related interventions: 

Impaired social interaction care plan

A nursing diagnosis of impaired social interaction will be made if the patient lacks social skills and hardship when navigating social constructs, cues, and roles. This care plan will come into effect should the patient show disturbed thought processes, isolation, lack of knowledge around social constructs, mistrust of others, an inability to maintain relationships or perceive and interpret the intentions of others, and impaired communication. these may be evidenced by:

• Difficulty focusing or paying attention
• Fearful or anxious around others
• Inappropriate emotional responses
• Poor eye contact
• Disorganized speech and thoughts

An impaired social interaction care plan will assist the patient in developing a social support system and instigate education on techniques that support and improve social interaction. The patient would be encouraged to verbalize factors, behaviors, and thoughts that they believe prevent their social interaction. A key goal of care is to facilitate a safe space in which the patient feels comfortable participating in social interactions, and supports building a trusting relationship with care staff. 

The assessment portion of an impaired social interaction care plan involves:

• Assessing the patient's perceptions and feelings towards social interaction and isolation.
• Determining family patterns and support patterns or lack of.
• Observing the patient's speech, nonverbal gestures, and body language. 

The intervention involves developing a trusting relationship with the patient through acknowledgment and active listening. Positive reinforcement is encouraged when the patient takes action toward socialization goals, and opportunities for group activities should also be encouraged to help motivate the patient to share and interact with others. Specialists and mental health nurses with social skills training should be referred to throughout the plan to assist with commitment to care and commitment to the plan's goals and outcomes. 

Disturbed sensory perception care plan

Often, psychosis from schizophrenia results in a severing or disconnect from reality through delusions and hallucinations. A formal nursing diagnosis for this care plan may entail a disturbed sensory perception. This can be related to sleep deprivation, intense levels of stress, overstimulation, and misuse of alcohol and medications. The call for this specific plan may be made if the patient displays:

• Panic
• Anxiety
• Conversations or laughing to themselves
• Intense mood changes in a short amount of time
• Hallucinations 
• Inappropriate resonances to social situations 
• Disorientation 
• Head tilting 

A disturbed sensory perception care plan will aim to assist the patient in identifying and modifying external factors that may trigger or exacerbate the alterations of perception, e.g., alcohol consumption. The care plan's goals of care also emphasize patient safety during episodes and recognition of hallucinations not being rooted in reality, helping the patient through education on how to interrupt hallucinations and decipher reality. 

Assessment for disturbed sensory perception within a schizophrenia care plan involves:

• Assessment of medication use and adherence to the drugs and potential interactions with alcohol.
• Assessment of the contents of the hallucinations: note this isn't encouragement or reinforcement of the hallucinations, but rather asking what voices are saying or what they are visualizing to mitigate potential harm and indicate safety interventions.
• Monitoring for increased anxiety or agitation

Intervention involves removing the patient from high simulation environments that may cause worsening hallucinations, as well as safety interventions if needed. Supervision during episodes or removing potentially harmful objects is a common safety intervention protocol. Nurses are encouraged to aid in distraction and offer tactics of control such as music or verbally telling visions and voices to leave. A key intervention in audio/visual care plans is to help the patient with the recognition of their triggers. Work done with specialists through one one-on-one therapy or group work can be indicated in the chart and clearly notifies nurses of the patient's potential triggers. 

Risk for self/ other-directed violence

This particular care plan may be used if the patient harbors feelings of suspicion and perception of threats when none are present. When a patient is in a psychotic state, they may have delusions or hear voices that encourage and sometimes threaten dangerous behavior towards themselves and others. The expected outcome of this care plan is to mitigate risk and future harm. The expected outcomes and goals of care may include the following:

• The patient remains free of self-harm or injury
• The patient causes no harm to peers, family members, and staff
• The patient is able to recognize signs of potential danger and notify care staff or family for help and assistance through the thoughts. 

Assessment for risk within this particular care plan may involve an assessment of suicidal ideation or planned violence, and staff may be encouraged to watch for early cues or behaviors of distress. This care plan will most likely be carried out and updated through a care facility that adheres to mental health standards and codes yet typical interventions for these care plans will involve prioritizing staff safety, patients' personal safety, and, depending on the facility, use of restraints or medications.

Why use Carepatron as your Schizophrenia Nursing Care Plan app?

Selecting Carepatron as your preferred application for creating a schizophrenia nursing care plan offers numerous advantages for healthcare practitioners.

Carepatron provides a centralized workspace, allowing you to manage clinical documents and electronic patient records, set patient appointment reminders, and handle medical billing seamlessly and efficiently within the platform, eliminating the need for additional software downloads. This integrated and comprehensive approach simplifies, and streamlines processes and tasks related to schizophrenia management and care as well as various other activities, giving you peace of mind and allowing you to focus most of your time, attention, and effort on patient care.

Carepatron is dedicated to offering a highly efficient and productive platform for thousands of healthcare professionals, allowing you to customize tools and workflows to meet your unique needs. Additionally, it empowers practitioners and patients to manage administrative tasks such as service booking and completing paperwork. The easy sharing of essential documents and data through the app ensures a top-quality customer experience.

We strongly believe in providing radical accessibility, making our app available on any device you have at your disposal. Our portable medical dictation software simplifies clinical note-making and updates, ensuring an effortless process. With great accessibility comes great responsibility, and we prioritize the security of all notes, clinical records, results, and practitioner data by complying with global security requirements, including HIPAA, GDPR, and HITRUST.

References

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Frost, B. G., Tirupati, S., Johnston, S., Turrell, M., Lewin, T. J., Sly, K. A., & Conrad, A. M. (2017). An Integrated Recovery-oriented Model (IRM) for mental health services: evolution and challenges. BMC Psychiatry, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-1164-3

Le Boutillier, C., Chevalier, A., Lawrence, V., Leamy, M., Bird, V. J., Macpherson, R., Williams, J., & Slade, M. (2015). Staff understanding of recovery-oriented mental health practice: a systematic review and narrative synthesis. Implementation Science, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-015-0275-4

Slade, M. (2010). Mental illness and well-being: the central importance of positive psychology and recovery approaches. BMC Health Services Research, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-10-26

Slade, M., Bird, V., Clarke, E., Le Boutillier, C., McCrone, P., Macpherson, R., Pesola, F., Wallace, G., Williams, J., & Leamy, M. (2015). Supporting recovery in patients with psychosis through care by community-based adult mental health teams (REFOCUS): a multisite, cluster, randomized, controlled trial. The Lancet Psychiatry, 2(6), 503–514. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2215-0366(15)00086-3

Tasijawa, F. A., Suryani, S., Sutini, T., & Maelissa, S. R. (2021). Recovery from “schizophrenia”: Perspectives of mental health nurses in the Eastern island of Indonesia. Belitung Nursing Journal, 7(4), 336–345. https://doi.org/10.33546/bnj.1621

Tondora, J., Miller, R., Slade, M., & Davidson, L. (2014). Partnering for recovery in mental health: A practical guide to person-centered planning. John Wiley & Sons.

Wagner, M. (2022, February 26). Schizophrenia Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan. NurseTogether. https://www.nursetogether.com/schizophrenia-nursing-diagnosis-care-plan/