Nursing Progress Note Template & Examples
Nursing progress notes are the records kept by nurses during their interactions with each client. These notes help health professionals keep track of the medications and care a patient receives and allow for the patient’s medical records to be as up-to-date as possible.
Nursing progress note example using the F-DAR method:
Focus: Nausea related to anesthesia
Data: Patient complained of intense nausea. Vomited 150 ml of clear fluid at 10:00am.
Action: At 10:10am, patient given Compazine 1 mg IV.
Response: Patient reported reduced nausea at 10:45am. Patient has stopped vomiting.
- Information for nurses who want to use the SOAP note method
- A detailed example of a nursing progress note to provide insight for how effective documentation is structured
With the right template, streamlining nursing progress notes may be easier than you think:
Benefits Of Using A Soap Note Template
Using a SOAP note template will lead to many benefits for you and your practice. These include:
- Consistency: If you choose to use a SOAP note template, your progress notes will have a consistent format. In addition to simplifying your writing process, using consistent templates will make it easier for other providers to read your notes.
- Accuracy: SOAP note templates havenât just been created to make things easier for practitioners – they also aim to improve the quality of your documentation. Separating your notes into four different sections ensures that you cover all the right information and donât forget any important details.
- Save time: Using SOAP note templates will also save you a lot of time. Your documentation is already formatted well and you simply have to fill in the missing information. â
- Most popular template: While there are a range of different progress note templates that you can choose from, SOAP is by far the most popular. Using the same format as other providers makes communication and coordination of care much easier.
Speech Therapy Soap Note Examples: Plan Of Care
- Recommend continued dysphagia treatment with trials of thin liquids given the use of safe swallowing strategies.
- Next session: Continue phrase-level expressive language tasks using notecards with nouns/adjectives to address continued expressive language deficit.
- Continue practicing easy onsets with /h/ initial words. Trial /h/ initial multisyllabic words.
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What Are Progress Notes In Mental Health
Progress notes are clinical notes made by psychologists, therapists, clinical counselors, psychiatrists, and other practitioners involved in a patients treatment and care.
More specifically, they contain clinical facts and medical reasoning about the care delivered to patients and the clinical events relevant to diagnosis and treatment.
Progress notes are professional documents that communicate important information on a patients condition between multiple providers. In mental health contexts, they must be stored privately and securely in a HIPAA-compliant manner.
What Are Mental Health Progress Notes
Mental health progress notes are what clinicians use to document the details of every session, focusing on the clients condition coming in, as well as what transpired during the clinicians interaction with the client. Clinicians have a legal and ethical responsibility to document each treatment episode as part of the clients official medical record. These notes describe any notable symptoms or other relevant factors in the clients presentation, changes since their last visit, their response to treatment recommendations, and interventions related to their goals, as well as assessment of client risk.
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It Helps Keep Progress Records
The purpose of therapy sessions is to help you heal emotionally. Your therapist should tell how you are progressing with each session. What will help them is the notes theyve been taking from the time you visited first. They look at the history of your situation then and compare it with your current situation. From there, they can advise whether you need more sessions or not.
Play Therapy Progress Notes:
Therapeutic interventions for young children often take the form of play therapy, usually with the parents present. Since children dont have the capacity for abstract thought, play therapy offers therapists and children a way to communicate via the medium of creativity and play. Interventions often involve common toys like puppets, dolls, puzzles, and blocks.
Therapeutic intervention in this example: Non-Directive Play Therapy/Creative Visualization.
S: Client, 6, anxious parents communicated that the child exhibited selective mutism, saying I dont know why she just wont talk sometimes. Client did not speak in session, but drew a picture of ducks on seeing crayons and paper at the table.
O: Client seemed to relax while drawing, but did not respond to questions about what she had created. Anxiously looked around the room, and whispered to her parents intermittently. Transitioned out of session anxiously.
A: A number of toys were brought out for the child to interact with her choice suggests that the client enjoys drawing in particular. Therapeutic intervention will be a humanistic approach to further investigate the source of the clients anxiety.
P: Following session will use non-directive play therapy to gradually increase clients comfort with communication. Creative visualization a future possibility for treatment as communication improves.
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+ Progress Report Comments For Slps
Although I really dont want to think about progress reports for a few more months, I was completely inspired by this list of Report Card comments. I typically write a few sentences of objective data , and then I like to add something more personal. But I always say the same thing for each student, during each quarter. BORING!
So, I generated 25+ comments for SLPs to add to progress reports. Feel free to cut and paste. Or give me more ideas to add to this list!
You can access a printable copy of this list in the resource library.
SUBSCRIBE HERE for access to my library of free speech materials.
Progress: ________________ is making great progress in speech. continuing to improve. consistently improving in speech and language skills. an amazing worker.
a very hard speech worker. always tying his/her best at speech. keeping up the great work every day. showing great effort in speech. self-motivated.
showing good carry-over skills from home to speech. doing a great job with speech homework. working hard at home and school on speech and language. practicing at home and making progress. consistently turning in speech work.
General Compliments: ________________ is kind and helpful at speech. a great listener. a role model for others. artistic and creative.
Figure Out The Patients Goals
When it comes to your SOAP notes, writing goals is crucial. However, setting too many goals can hinder your treatment plan. So be specific to each patient when prioritizing the goals and think about what limitations are the most challenging for them in day-to-day life.
When you create goals, be sure that they are SMART goals. SMART goals are easier for caregivers and other involved parties to digest and support.
A SMART goal is:
SMART goals break down a goal so that you can look at each aspect and set a date for the goal to be reached.
They also allow you to plan what needs to happen along the way for you to get there.
Make sure each patients long-term goals are as functional as possible. You should set short-term goals that help them reach their long-term goals incrementally, keeping them motivated and on the right path.
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Soap Note Example For Adult Voice Session
Subjective: The client reports increased vocal demands since last visit, due to additional meetings at work. She notes that her colleagues commented Your voice is back! after her last work presentation, but that she experiences intermittent vocal fatigue during social events. She reports she has been incorporating her semi occluded vocal tract straw routine 3x a day for 5 minutes.Objective: Led the client through SOVT exercises with straw in water. Client independently achieved optimal voicing in 5/5 opportunities. Introduced conversational training therapy , where client differentiated between her husky voice and presenter voice in 5/5 opportunities. Practiced functional phrases where client achieved presenter voice in 8/10 opportunities with moderate visual cues. The clients vocal effort utilizing CTT techniques was 4/10. Assessment: The client met goals of optimal voicing to meet vocational demands, as evidenced by an improvement from vocal effort of 7/10 to 4/10 . She is progressing toward carryover of SOVT strategies to meet social demands.Plan: Continue current plan of care. Target optimal voicing in functional environments with CTT techniques. Introduce additional compensatory strategies to manage vocal load across vocational and social settings.
Always Always Take Soap Notes
Its important to write up your notes for each session. Youll need to avoid generic, vague reports that dont give specific insights into your clients and their progress. Remember, these notes may be needed in the event of a board review, medical insurance query, or legal issue. They should cover your clients goals, and how their treatment is progressing with clear justification for any activities, additional treatments, or interventions.
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Writing Too Many Notes In The Session
Although it can be tempting to write down notes during your session, it is essential that you give your client all of your attention. You want to ensure that your patient feels like their needs are being listened to and itâs your responsibility to deliver this level of professionalism. Feel free to capture some brief notes as you go, but the majority of your documentation should be completed after your session.
Write A Note For Each Session
In order to write defensible documentation, you should be creating a unique note for each and every appointment.
The note that you create for each child following every session should describe the patients goals and treatment in a way thats relevant to each individual patient. Different activities and interventions should be clearly justified.
Avoid cookie cutter notes that are generic, vague, and/or look the same for all the children you work with. These are a red flag for insurance claims reviewers.
If youre using EMR software, you should find an option with a wide selection of content thats able to be customized with unique responses, outcomes, and goals tailored to each child.
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Mental Health Progress Notes Vs Psychotherapy Notes
Working as a mental health practitioner, you will encounter many different types of documentation. It is quite a common occurrence for providers to get confused between progress notes and psychotherapy notes. To help you avoid getting them conflated, here is an overview of the purpose and use of these two types of documentation.
Psychotherapy Progress Note Template & Examples
Psychotherapy progress notes are notes taken by mental health professionals for the purpose of documenting or analyzing the content of a conversation during a therapy session.
Psychotherapy progress note example
Subjective: Angela says her cravings for heroin have reduced to â1-2 times a dayâ. Angela denies use and says she has been regularly attending AA meetings. Her eating habits have improved and she is eating up to 4 meals a day. Angela expressed gratitude for improved relationships with her friends.
Objective: Angela presented as calm and attentive. She was dressed neatly and appeared well groomed. She exhibited speech that was normal in rate, volume and articulation. Mood appeared normal.
Assessment: Angela is effectively managing her sobriety. Angela shows improvement in her ability to withstand cravings.
Plan: Angela will continue weekly sessions. Next appointment is at 11am on 11/09/2022. Short term goals include exercising 1-2 times a week and increasing her part-time work hours.
- Understanding the type of information to be used in a progress note
- Psychotherapists who are looking to improve their progress notes
Looking for a psychotherapy SOAP note template? Youâve come to the right place:
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Group Therapy Progress Note Template & Examples
Group therapy notes have two components. The first part of a group therapy note is the group summary. This includes basic information on the group, such as the group name, main topic covered during the session, interventions implemented, and the schedule. In the second, individualized section, it is important to document how the client engaged within the group. Include information like their level of active engagement, contributions, and reactions.
Person Centered Progress Notes:
Person centered approaches emphasize positive regard, congruence, and empathy. While these approaches are well-known for their lack of formal intervention, completing SOAP notes collaboratively with clients can help them stay invested in their treatment and strengthen the therapeutic alliance. Interventions in person centered therapy usually happen in the therapy office, mainly composed of things like open-ended questions, affirmations, and empathic responses. However, clients can also help design custom interventions that they think will help them achieve their goals outside of the therapy room.
Therapeutic intervention in this example: humanistic therapy.
S: Client expressed feelings of deep sadness, worthlessness, and exhaustion: I feel trapped. Client described struggling with grief following a recent divorce and the frustration of custody issues, and shame about the divorce.
O: Neat, clean appearance client spoke in a soft voice and struggled to make eye contact.
A: Both the clients expressed struggles and demeanour in session suggest further exploration of grief is warranted. Client and therapist collaborated on a plan for a number of treatment sessions to help client explore and process their grief.
P: Person centered therapy focusing on client-led discussions about grief, loss, and a way forward out of the trapped feeling.
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Include The Sessions Important Points
Documenting each individual session is how you provide evidence about the quality and efficacy of your treatment plan. When you forget or exclude details, caregivers can begin to question the quality of the care youre providing.
The more details youre able to write about a given session, the better. These details will help you stay consistent with your treatment methods and replicate your approach where needed.
They can also help you better communicate with other therapists who may be working with your patients to ensure they can pick up where you left off.
How Can These Progress Note Templates Allow You To Create Effective Progress Notes
Progress notes are a contract between the client and their clinician. They are where treatment goals and plans can be discussed and decided on before they are put into a document to track the treatment progression.
Without the right formula writing progress, notes can be a lengthy process. Using a format such as SOAP means that the product is far more informative and concise. SOAP is an acronym for subjective, objective, assessment, and plan. It helps ensure that each part of the therapy note has a purpose and that no critical details are missed from a progress note.
In addition to a formula such as SOAP notes, we’ve provided you with some templates to outline what you can expect to see ineffective progress notes⦠think of these templates as ‘progress note goals’kinda like the Obama’s are to ‘relationship goals’but maybe a little easier to achieve…
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What Needs To Be In A Therapy Note
A therapist must have documented information that will help them to accurately recall their sessions with their client. The document helps with treatment follow-up and effective cooperation with your client.
It is an important document to the insurer for purposes of reimbursement. You may want to refer to therapy notes examples to understand what should be included. For any therapy notes document to be effective, it must include the following details.
Client demographics
The details of your client demographics are necessary. You might be attending to several clients each day. You dont want to confuse therapy for one client with another. Make sure you capture the following information in this section.
Client name: Do not use an alias name or codes to note a client. Some of the information in the progressive notes will be captured in the client files. Again, you will create a better relationship if you address your client by their name. Record their full name in the counseling notes template. Here are the other important things:
- Physical address
When you have recorded a clients current living situation and occupation, it will help get some ideas about their current situation. The information could be valuable when creating a treatment program.
Client diagnosis
Your client case/problem
Any safety precautions
- Your clients safety concerns
- Their immediate family safety concern
- Your safety concerns
Medications prescribed
Symptoms history
Your clients current mental status
Patient Progress Note Template & Examples
Patient progress notes are the component of the patient’s record in which you record notes about the interaction you had with them, their reason for visiting, examinations performed on them, medications prescribed on the day, and other relevant details.
Patient progress note example
Subjective: Amy says she is feeling âmore relaxedâ at work. Amy has scheduled a meeting with her employer to discuss moving departments. Amy reports using calming strategies at work when she starts feeling anxious.
Objective: Amy presented as calm and attentive. Amyâs speech was normal. Amyâs mood was normal.
Assessment: Amy is responding well to the treatment plan. Her feelings of anxiety at work have decreased. Amy shows improved assertiveness in her professional life.
Plan: Amy to have a follow-up session at 10am on 3/09/2022. If symptoms have continued to improve, this will be the final session.
. This example can be used for:
- Practitioners who are documenting their patientâs progress
- Includes 15 different SOAP note examples
- Providers looking to improve their documentation skills
Sometimes the best way to guarantee consistency across documentation is to use a template. Luckily, weâve got the perfect one for you:
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How To Write Excellent Soap Notes For Speech Therapy
As a pediatric speech therapist, you know that defensible documentation is an essential part of demonstrating your skilled service and getting paid.
Whether you use clinic software or the old pen and paper method, managing your SOAP notes and evaluations can easily become overwhelming when working with multiple patients. But you dont have to let that affect the quality of your notes.
In this article, Ill cover some guidelines you can follow to improve your SLP documentation with or without speech therapy documentation software. And remember: better notes mean better therapy and less claim denials.
While every SLP has their own way to document their sessions, these guidelines can help you write notes that include the critical information and present those details in a way thats easy to digest for caregivers and other therapists. Ive also included a SOAP note template and some other helpful resources at the bottom of the post.
Feel free to take this information and tailor it to your own note-taking style!