Cancer nursing interventions

LaceyRN · Oct 21, 2008

You need a nursing diagnosis, and patient outcome criteria before you implement interventions.

At my school we have to do clinical writeups on our pt assignments the night before, so we have to come up with priority diagnoses before assessing the pt which can be hard. I have a neat little book that has priority ND for various conditions. For gallbladder and biliary duct cancer it has the priority diagnosis as:

Pain (acute) r/t obstruction of biliary tree

Altered nutrition: less than body req r/t biliary obstruction, anorexia, and discomfort

Some outcome criteria suggested by the book include:

Pt will report that pain is controlled.

Pt will demostrate a gradual wt gain or stabilization of current wt.

Pt will exhibit no clinical manifestations of blocked bile ducts.

You can look in a care plan book for nursing interventions to help the pt. meet these outcome criteria.

Hope this helps and can get you started on the right track. :)

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2008

You have good instincts. You are missing a step. Interventions are aimed at the symptoms a patient has. To list 5 symptoms for gallbladder cancer you need to first know what symptoms a patient with this cancer will have.

Here is information from the National Cancer Institute on Gallbladder Cancer: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/gallbladder/. Look up the signs and symptoms. Interventions will focus on treatment of the symptoms. It is difficult to detect because the symptoms are similar to other conditions, but symptoms listed on this site include:

Jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes)
Pain above the stomach
Fever
Nausea and vomiting
Bloating
Lumps in the abdomen

avahnel, ASN, RN · Oct 21, 2008

I am also working on care plans and Diognostic Statements. For example

If the pt had pain would an OK statement be Acute Pain related to gallbladder CA manifested by 7/10 on pain scale and guarding behavior?---Then your interventions would go from there to reduce pain? Thanks for your help Daytonite!!

DavolsGirl · Oct 21, 2008

Thanks, she doesn't give us a section for symptoms. I'll let you know what she says tomorrow.

shrimpchips, LPN · Oct 21, 2008

I am also working on care plans and Diognostic Statements. For example
If the pt had pain would an OK statement be Acute Pain related to gallbladder CA manifested by 7/10 on pain scale and guarding behavior?---Then your interventions would go from there to reduce pain? Thanks for your help Daytonite!!

I'm actually wondering about this too. We just started working on case studies/formulating diagnostic statements and I know that we're not allowed to include a medical dx...

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2008

i am also working on care plans and diognostic statements. for example
if the pt had pain would an ok statement be acute pain related to gallbladder ca manifested by 7/10 on pain scale and guarding behavior?---then your interventions would go from there to reduce pain? thanks for your help daytonite!!

acute pain related to gallbladder ca manifested by 7/10 on pain scale and guarding behavior

i see a lot of care plan books using terminology such as "

gallbladder ca

" for related factors with acute pain for cancer patients. it is probably because there isn't anything much better to describe the etiology of the pain. it is due to growth of the tumor pushing on surrounding tissue and pain receptors. another way to reword cancer might be "malignant neoplasm". you might want to ask your instructors about this and see what their thinking is about it.

your evidence is correct and matches with the problem. yes, your interventions would be to reduce the pain.