Impaired Physical Mobility Nursing Diagnosis & Care Plan

Impaired physical mobility is a common issue in healthcare, often seen after injury, illness, or surgery. Nurses play a key role in helping patients move safely, prevent complications, and regain independence. 

A clear, focused care plan is essential for assessing needs, setting goals, and guiding daily care. This article covers the basics of creating effective nursing care plans to support patients with limited mobility.

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What is Impaired Physical Mobility?

To understand what impaired physical mobility means, you must first understand the different kinds of mobility. Mobility refers to a patient’s ability to change and control their body position. 

Functional mobility is one’s ability to move around in their environment, including walking, standing up from a chair, sitting down from standing, and moving around in bed.¹

There are three main areas of functional mobility:

• Bed mobility
• Transferring
• Ambulation

Causes of Impaired Physical Mobility

• Health conditions
  • Stroke
  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Osteoarthritis
  • Fractures
• Chronic pain
• Surgery
• Sedentary life
• Contractures
• Depression
• Developmental delay
• Malnutrition
• Certain medications
• Morbid obesity
• Prolonged bed rest
• Deconditioning

Characteristics of Impaired Physical Mobility

• Alteration in gait
• Decrease in fine motor skills
• Decrease in gross motor skills
• Decrease in range of motion
• Decrease in reaction time
• Difficulty turning
• Exertional dyspnea
• Postural instability
• Uncoordinated or slow movement¹

Types of Weight Bearing

• Non-weight bearing: Patient is not to put any weight through the affected limb(s).
• Toe touch weight bearing: The ability to touch the foot or toes to the floor without supporting weight from the affected limb, for balance.
• Partial weight bearing: Range from anything greater than non-weight bearing to anything less than full weight bearing.
• Weight bearing as tolerated: The patient is medically cleared to bear any amount of weight (up to full body weight) through the involved limb.
• Full weight bearing: No restriction to weight bearing.²

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How to Develop an Impaired Physical Mobility Nursing Care Plan

When developing an impaired physical mobility nursing care plan, the first step is determining a patient’s goals. Although you’ll generate parts of the nursing care plan on your own, the nursing diagnosis must be on the NANDA-I-approved nursing diagnosis list.

According to the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA),  a nursing diagnosis is “a clinical judgment about the human response to health conditions/life processes, or a vulnerability for that response, by an individual, family, group or community.”

A nursing diagnosis is rooted in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid and helps prioritize treatments. Based on the nursing diagnosis, you’ll set goals to resolve your patient’s problems through nursing interventions determined in the next step.

NANDA-I separates nursing diagnoses into four categories:

• Problem-focused: A diagnosis based on patient problems present during a nursing assessment.
• Risk: A diagnosis based on risk factors that requires intervention from a nurse or healthcare team before a real problem develops.
• Health promotion: A diagnosis that intends to improve the overall well-being of an individual, family, or community.
• Syndrome: Based on a cluster of nursing diagnoses that occur in a pattern or can all be addressed through the same or similar nursing interventions.

Determining the most important goals for the patient and the corresponding nursing diagnosis provides the basis to create an impaired physical mobility care plan that can best support the patient while reaching those goals.

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Impaired Physical Mobility Nursing Care Plan Components

A nursing care plan has several key components, including: 

• Nursing Diagnosis
• Expected outcome
• Nursing interventions and rationales
• Evaluation

Each of the five main components is essential to the overall nursing process and care plan. A properly written care plan must include these sections. Otherwise, it won’t make sense.

• Nursing diagnosis: A clinical judgment that helps nurses determine the plan of care for their patients
• Expected outcome: The measurable action for a patient to be achieved in a specific time frame. 
• Nursing interventions and rationales: Actions to be taken to achieve expected outcomes and reasoning behind them.
• Evaluation: Determines the effectiveness of the nursing interventions and determines if expected outcomes are met within the time set.

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Impaired Physical Mobility Nursing Care Plan Examples

All nursing diagnoses must be NANDA-I approved and have corresponding definitions to help guide nurses in writing a nursing care plan.

NANDA-I Definition of Impaired Physical Mobility: Limitation in independent, purposeful movement of the body or of one or more extremities.¹

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Other Nursing Care Plans

• Hypertension Nursing Care Plan
• Acute Pain Nursing Care Plan
• Infection Nursing Care Plan
• Constipation Nursing Care Plan
• Decreased Cardiac Output Nursing Care Plan
• COPD Nursing Care Plan
• Pneumonia Nursing Care Plan
• Diabetes Mellitus Nursing Care Plan
• Fluid Volume Deficit Nursing Care Plan
• Sepsis Nursing Care Plan
• Risk for Falls Nursing Care Plan
• Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Nursing Care Plan
• Heart Failure Nursing Care Plan

Resources

_{1 Ernstmeyer, Kimberly, and Elizabeth Christman, ed. 2021. Nursing Fundamentals 2e, Chapter 13. Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Chippewa Valley Technical College. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK591823/.}

_{2 “Weight bearing.” n.d. Physiopedia. Accessed June 16, 2025. https://www.physio-pedia.com/Weight_bearing#cite_note-:2-4.}

Nursing Care Plan