What is a Nursing Concept Map? Examples & Templates

4 Min Read Published April 26, 2023
What is a nursing concept map?

What is a Nursing Concept Map?

A nursing concept map is a visual tool that helps nursing students strategize patient care on paper. This map allows students to organize and visualize patient care concepts in an easy-to-read diagram that highlights the relationships among various nursing concepts.

Nursing concept maps are also a self-teaching strategy that can help students pre-plan their clinical assessments and provide valuable insight for post-clinical analysis. This tool increases students' clinical reasoning and judgment while optimizing learning.

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Why Use a Nursing Concept Map?

Additional benefits of nursing concept maps include:

  • Identifying patient problems and health concerns
  • Helping organize assessment data
  • Determining the appropriate nursing diagnoses and interventions
  • Assessing outcomes

Nursing concept maps are effective learning tools for content that can be broken down into categories or when it is essential to clearly visualize the relationship between various concepts. Nursing students most commonly use them in the clinical setting. However, concept maps also benefit students who need to compare and contrast information in the classroom.

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Types of Nursing Concept Maps

Concept maps can help chuck significant amounts of information using many forms, including:

  • Charts
  • Tables
  • Flowcharts
  • Graphic organizers
  • Timelines
  • T-charts, or
  • Venn Diagrams

Although there are many ways to create a concept map, most nursing concept maps are templates utilizing a graphic organizer format.

Nursing Concept Map Templates

If you are a nursing student looking to study more effectively and efficiently, you have come to the right place! We’ve designed several nursing concept map templates for you to up your study game and ace your next exam. You can print these out and organize them as you need.

Medical Diagnosis Concept Map Template

Nursing concept map medical diagnosis template

SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) Concept Map Template

SBAR nursing concept map template

Body System Concept Map Template

 

Body system nursing concept map template

Nursing Diagnosis Concept Care Map

Nursing diagnosis concept map template

Sarah Jividen
RN, BSN
Sarah Jividen
Nurse.org Contributor

Sarah Jividen, RN, BSN, is a trained neuro/trauma and emergency room nurse turned freelance healthcare writer/editor. As a journalism major, she combined her love for writing with her passion for high-level patient care. Sarah is the creator of Health Writing Solutions, LLC, specializing in writing about healthcare topics, including health journalism, education, and evidence-based health and wellness trends. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two children. 

Education:
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), National University - Los Angeles Bachelor of the Arts (BA) in Journalism, California State University - Chico

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