[classof2009]

Hi, I'm a first semester nursing student. I desperately need help with my nanda. Actually, my nanda is acute pain related to inflammation associated with disease process sucha s patient having acute abdominal pain and rheumatoid arthritis. I need to write the short term and long term outcome and intervetions to go with it. Can someone please guide me? I would really appreciate it. Thanx.

[nurserynurse55]

Please consider getting this book, "Nursing Diagnosis Handbook, A Guide to Planning Care
Betty J. Ackley, MSN, EdS, RN, Professor of Nursing, Jackson Community College, Jackson, Michigan; Staff Nurse, Stepdown Cardiac Care, W.A. Foote Memorial Hospital, Jackson, Michigan; and Gail B. Ladwig, MSN, CHTP, HNC, RN, Associate Professor of Nursing, Jackson Community College; Healing Touch Practitioner, Jackson, Michigan
Mosby.

The book is cheep and saved my butt durring school. It is a great tool.
Remember that goals are short term and are measureable. Ex= client will state that he has a decrease in pain in 1 hour using a 1 -10 pain measuring scale after pain interveintion, outcomes are longer term. The first couple of care plans are hard. Soon they will not be hard, but you will still hate them, because they take too long to make. Good luck!

[Daytonite]

Hi, classof2009, and welcome to allnurses!

You will get a better response to these kinds of questions if you post them in one of these student forums:

• http://allnurses.com/forums/f205/ - Nursing Student Assistance Forums
• http://allnurses.com/forums/f50/ - the General Nursing Student Discussion forum

You are on STEP #3 of the nursing process of your care plan:

1. Assessment (collect data from medical record, do a physical assessment of the patient, look up information about your patient's medical diseases/conditions)
2. Determination of the patient's problem(s)/Nursing diagnosis (make a list of the abnormal assessment data, match your abnormal assessment data to likely nursing diagnoses, decide on the nursing diagnosis to use)
3. Planning (write measurable goals/outcomes and nursing interventions)
4. Implementation (initiate the care plan)
5. Evaluation (determine if goals/outcomes have been met)

You should have completed STEPS #1 and #2 before getting to this point. All outcomes and nursing interventions are based upon the abnormal data (or the list of signs and symptoms) that you should have developed in STEP #2 of the nursing process. These symptoms come out of your assessment activities. Outcomes are the predicted results of our independent nursing actions. Independent nursing actions are those things that a nurse can prescribe, or order, for a patient that do not require a physician order. In other words, outcomes are linked to your nursing interventions. There is a discussion on how to write goals/outcomes on post #157 of this thread: http://allnurses.com/forums/f50/careplans-help-please-r-t-aeb-121128.html

So, if your nursing diagnostic statement is Acute Pain related to inflammation due to rheumatoid arthritis as evidenced by (signs and symptoms of the pain go here), then your nursing interventions are aimed at the signs and symptoms of the pain. Your outcomes focus on the expected results you hope to see as a result of those interventions.

For more information on care planning see these threads on the nursing student forums:

• http://allnurses.com/forums/f205/desperately-need-help-careplans-170689.html - Desperately need help with careplans (in Nursing Student Assistance Forum) – Post #109 has the list of Ackley/Ladwig links to nursing diagnosis pages – psychosocial diagnoses are listed on post #145; wellness diagnoses are listed on post #84; an explanation of the difference between outcomes and goals on post #75
• http://allnurses.com/forums/f50/careplans-help-please-r-t-aeb-121128-7.html - CAREPLANS HELP PLEASE! (with the R\T and AEB) (in General Nursing Student Discussion Forum) - how to write long term goals is discussed on post #157