Comprehensive planning starts with the patient's admission and continues after discharge. It includes both short and long-term goals. A nurse needs to regularly update the plan to enhance communication, documentation, and continuity of care. Failure to do so may reduce the efficacy of the plan. Planning proceeds in three stages: initial, ongoing, and discharge. Initial planning is executed by the admitting nurse, and it addresses all of the problems identified during the patient's admission assessment and sets appropriate goals. Ongoing planning identifies any changes to the patient's health status and helps the nurses to decide which problem to prioritize during their shift. Finally, discharge planning anticipates the needs of the patient after their discharge, and it should involve the patient and their family or caregiver in the process. To prioritize planning, a nurse ranks the diagnoses as either high, medium, or low. High-priority diagnoses pose a threat to life. Non-life-threatening diagnoses are of medium priority, and diagnoses that do not relate to current health problems are of low priority.