GUIDELINES FOR COMPLETING CONCEPT and MEDICATION MAPS

Concept Map Guidelines

Center Box
 Primary Medical Diagnosis/Reason for Admission : should be brief
 Focused Assessments: List those areas of patient assessment that should be focused
on given this particular medical/surgical diagnosis, and as applicable, those areas for
which the patient is currently being treated. Organize the focused assessment by
concepts. For example, with a diagnosis of pneumonia, focused assessment should
include the following concepts:
o Oxygenation (Resp assess - crackles, wheezing, dyspnea, tachypnea, O2 sats
– Cough: productive, purulent, persistent, hemoptysis)
o Comfort (pleuritic CP, weakness)
o Infection (fever – chills – WBC count - confusion)
The focused assessment must be specific; thus, writing “vital signs, respiratory system,
lab data” would be incorrect.

Surrounding Boxes
 These are used to organize data collected from a patient and their medical records.
Choose concepts that apply to the patient and write them on the top of the surrounding
boxes. You will then group related data together under the appropriate concept. This
data should include medical/surgical history, abnormal lab and diagnostic test results,
medications/treatments/planned interventions, physical assessment and psychosocial
factors affecting the patient’s wellbeing obtained during clinical. Some data can be
placed in more than one box.

 Completed concept map is due 72 hours after close of final clinical day each week.

Nursing Concepts
 In each surrounding box, there is a place to identify the nursing concept that is
supported by the data in the box.
A minimum of (4) nursing concepts are to be written
 Prioritization of data is expected. The small # boxes should be numbered to list the
concepts in order of priority based on patient status.

Goals must be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timed)

 Derived from identified patient response (health problem/nursing diagnosis) and are
appropriate
 Written to include correct components:
 Subject (pt, any part of the pt, or some attribute of the pt; significant others)
 Verb (denotes what pt is to do, learn, or experience – ie cognitive, psychomotor,
affective)
 Conditions or modifiers (explain the circumstances under which the behavior is to
be performed ie what, where, when, or how)
 Time frame
 Realistic
 Observable and/or measurable

Nursing interventions established and are in order of priority

 Derived from etiology
  For actual problem, focus on eliminating/reducing cause
 For high risk, focus on measures to reduce patients' risk factors
 Realistic- things that you ACTUALLY did while caring for this client. These should
not just be things you read about in a book.

Medication Map Guidelines

Medication mapping will allow the student to:

 -Develop a better understanding of the medications chosen and how those
medications interact with both target organs and the unintended target organs
- Grow in the base knowledge of medication dosing, rationale and need for the
medications based on medical diagnoses
 -Understand how the medication may affect the holistic health of the patient.
 -Inter-relate medication delivery with the patho-physiology of the patients’ disease
process and necessary lab values which need to be monitored.

‘Mapping’ of Medications

Choose MINIMUM OF EIGHT medications that are most pertinent to treating the patient’s
current medical problems/admission diagnosis. The listed medications must include:
• Classification of medication
• Generic and brand names
• Recommended safe dosage and prescribed dosage

Utilizing the medication map form, arrange chosen medications and information in an
organized format around the body. **

Under each medication:

 Describe the assessment and monitoring necessary to safely administer the
medication to the patient (being inclusive and considerate of this safety and holistic needs).
 List interventions to prevent and/or treat the side effects of the medication.

Medication Actions and Effects on Organs and Body Systems **

 Intended Target Organs or Body Systems: draw a solid line from each medication to
the target organs or body systems the medication is intended to effect and describe its
effects.
 Unintended Organs or Body Systems: draw a dotted line from each medication to the
organs or body systems the medication can negatively effect (side effects) and describe its
effects on the involved organ.

** Color coding of medications and lines will help you visualize the data.