Mind-Mapped Care Plans: Integrating an Innovative Educational Tool as an Alternative to Traditional Care Plans

ABSTRACT Teaching nursing students how to think critically when planning patient care is vital to their professional success. Traditionally, the nursing care plan has been used to apply steps of the nursing process in planning patient care. However, nursing has evolved into a more complex profession that requires expanded ways of thinking and reasoning beyond the linear methods used in the past. Mind-mapped care plans provide an alternative method of teaching holistic, patient-centered care. This article describes the process used to integrate the mind-mapped care plan as an innovative educational tool, as well as formative and summative outcomes of its use. AUTHORS Received: September 26, 2003 Accepted: December 6, 2004 Ms. Kern and Ms. Bush are Assistant Professors, and Dr. McCleish is Professor, Mercy College of Health Sciences, Division of Nursing, Des Moines, Iowa. Address correspondence to Carolyn S. Kern, MSN, RN, Assistant Professor, Mercy College of Health Sciences, Division of Nursing, 928 6th Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50309; e-mail: ckern@mercydesmoines.org.