I'm waffling between Acute Pain and Impaired Mobility for the primary dx. My pt consistently rated his pain at an 8 or 9 during the entire clinical weekend. He had a fracture in the neck of his femur which was repaired w/ a partial hip replacement (which I got to go to!) and he has a history of chronic pain d/t several back surgeries/injuries. He was loaded w/ pain meds for most of the weekend I was there. He was also on complete bed rest for the weekend.

I keep leaning towards Acute Pain because that was the biggest issue for HIM at that time. BUT he was in the hospital for the hip fracture so I feel like my nursing dx should relate more specifically to that. See, i'm waffling.

Any suggestions?

Okay, I'm still thinking about this and now i'm leaning more towards Impaired Physical Mobility because the pain could be a symptom of the IPM because of the fracture. More waffling.

Primary dx is impaired physical mobility, followed secondly by altered tissue perfusion.

Thanks! I had that one on my list too.

gentlywind - I actually had "impaired tissue integrity", can you tell me why 'impaired tissue perfusion" would fit? I'm looking at it in my book and the r/t factor and defining characteristics don't really fit my pt. Thanks!