Zabrina Gonzaga and Marla Throckmorton presented this poster at the Summer Institute of Nursing Informatics (SINI) to provide an overview of electronic care plan standards, strategies to identify clinically-relevant and meaningful concepts for exchange, identify the benefits of adoption, and suggest how to increase implementation and use. Electronic care plans can improve efficiency and resolve the duplicate entry issues that are associated with paper care plans and standards that make them interoperable. Nevertheless, uptake and adoption of electronic care plans lags behind the adoption of interoperable electronic health records (EHRs).

As electronic care plan standards evolve, nurse informaticists play a central role in pursuing the viability and applicability of care plans across healthcare settings. Nurses are the common denominator in most care settings and have the power to drive change. Nurse informaticists involved in standards development can contribute their expertise to identify core concepts critical to patients’ journeys in the continuum of care.