Care plan help

[Misty0719]

I am doing my first care plan for school and having a hard time coming up with a nursing Dx. It is on a small bowel obstruction. My instructor wants our first dx to be related to the primary dx. I can come up with a good way to word it. it has to be NANDA and with r/t and AEB. the pt had an ng tube to lcs, however no signs of dehydration, had an iv with d5 1/2 w/30KcL @125cc/hr. abd distension. persistant diarrhea. she wants us to use maslows to determine our priority. i am so lost. please help!!!!!!!

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

You must follow the steps of the nursing process in the sequence that they occur in writing a care plan. You cannot determine any nursing diagnoses until you have a list of all your patient's symptoms. All nursing diagnoses are based upon the symptoms that your patient has. Every nursing diagnosis has a set of signs and symptoms and your patient must have at least one or more of them in order for you to apply that nursing diagnosis to the patient's situation. So, having this list of your patient's symptoms is very, very important to the writing of your care plan.

The steps of the nursing process are:

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 can find explanations on how to write a care plan on these two threads:

N/G tubes tend to cause irritation of the mucus membranes of the nose and throat causing excess mucus production and sore throat. Did your patient have any of that? The patient was npo. How are nutritional needs being (or not being) met. Is d51/2ns with kcl in it providing enough nutrition for the patient? [attach]5949[/attach]. How is the patient getting their adls (bathing, dressing, transferring from bed or chair, walking, eating, toileting and grooming) accomplished? Do they need any assistance with them? If so, then there are self-care deficits to be addressed. These are all things that need to be assessed in step #1 of the nursing process before moving on to picking nursing diagnoses.

The only symptoms you have listed are abdominal distension and diarrhea. However, with a small bowel obstruction I am sure there are more that you either haven't posted or have overlooked. Did the doctor's notes indicate why the bowel obstruction was occurring? Does this patient have abdominal pain? Were there bowel sounds? Did you look up information about small bowel obstructions? Quite often these patients tend to lose fluid because it becomes trapped in the bowel and since peristalsis is either slowed or shut down, the fluid just sits in the bowel or is lost through diarrhea. It would be interesting to see what a set of this patient's electrolytes looks like. So, knowing that pathophysiology, you have a potential nursing diagnosis of:

• (risk for) deficient fluid volume secondary to small bowel obstruction r/t fluid loss through bowel aeb distended abdomen and diarrhea

[Misty0719]

Thanks ur info is very helpful. I do have more info 3 weeks prior to sbo pt had exploratory laparotomy, lysis of adhesions, segmental sigmoid colon resection, and reversal or colostomy, npo for approx 4 days then place on clear liquids the last day i cared for her. BUN, na, k, an cl are all low. abdominla incision is + for mrsa and dehissence at the lower portion and the site of the previous colostomy.

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

I can't help you if you can't tell me what her symptoms are. All you are telling me about is her medical diagnoses. That information only provides you with the pathophysiology. Did you read the two threads I referred you to? A symptom is an objective observation that you made or a subjective perception made by the patient--NOT medical diagnoses and conditions.

If this patient had an abdominal surgery with a wound dehis, then she has an incision. What does the incision look like? An incision is a symptom because it is not normal to have an incision. Does it have any drainage? Describe it. There is a nursing diagnosis for it.

[Misty0719]

since her problem is with her abd. here is my abd assessment: abd is soft and distended, compains of pain over entire abd 7 on 1-10 scale. bowel sounds audible x4. NG to LCS draining dark green fluid. C/o nausea without vomiting. Expelling large amounts of dark brown liquid BM. Integ: skin warm dry and fleshtone. surgical incision mid-abd area intact with staples present. lower portion of incision has half-dollar size opening approx 1 1/2 in deep pink around edges draining mod. amt of serous fluid. Left to abd incision is a quarter size opening approx 1/2 inch deep pink around edges draining small amt of serrous drainage. GU: has foley patent with amber urine. Complaints of abd pain, anxiety, and nausea.

I hope this is a little better. :icon_roll

[Misty0719]

Thank you so much this is wonderful........this really is a big help.

[nurseEwa]

Hey :)

I have to write nursing interventions for 74 years old man, who underwent bowel resection surgery 2 days earlier. Patient developed low grade fever and refuses to cough and deep breathing because of incisional pain. Nurse auscultates long sound bilaterally crakles. What might be the reason for low grade fever? write 5 interventions.