Care Plan

You have two very good items to care plan on:

• abdominal pain (Acute Pain)
  
• nausea and vomiting (Deficient Fluid Volume)

Which do you want to proceed with?

hi, i am new to this site. i am a nursing student and i am in clinicals. it is very nerve racking sometimes to do these care plans. i need help on mine so any suggestions would be helpful. i had a patient that was admitted to the hospital with cellulitis ble, chf, and iddm. my instructor said they were all primary diagnoses. i am just stuck on the nursing diagnosis, and going from there. please help me if you can..........thanks.

jen39452:lol2:

diagnosing is done based upon the nursing process because it is a problem solving activity. here is an analogy of how the nursing process works:

another analogy that works well to explain how diagnosing works is to think about how a police detective works a crime. they follow a process very similar to the nursing process in bringing the killer to justice. lets say someone is found dead. a detective investigates and finds all kinds of evidence of what occurred (assessment). he analyzes this data, makes some decisions about it and decides that the killing was deliberate--it was murder (diagnosis).

the same is true of this care plan of yours that you are attempting to write for a patient who has cellulitis of both legs, chf, and iddm. you need to first do some assessment and investigation of these diseases. what symptoms of them does this patient have? some symptoms are present because the doctor treats symptoms. so, do we. medical diseases are diagnosed based upon the symptoms the patient has (evidence of the medical problem). nursing diagnoses are also based upon the symptoms (evidence of the nursing problem) that the patient has. every nursing diagnosis, just like every medical diagnosis, has a set of signs and symptoms. how do you know what these are? you need a nursing diagnosis reference to help you. there are currently 188 nursing diagnoses and they are not the same as medical diagnoses. here's where you can find this information:

• your instructors might have given it to you.
  
• you can purchase it directly from nanda. nanda-i nursing diagnoses: definitions & classification 2007-2008 published by nanda international. cost is $24.95 http://www.nanda.org/html/nursing_diagnosis.html
  
• many authors of care plan and nursing diagnosis books include the nanda nursing diagnosis information. this information will usually be found immediately below the title of a nursing diagnosis.
  
• the nanda taxonomy and a medical disease cross reference is in the appendix of both taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary and mosby's medical, nursing, & allied health dictionary
  
• there are also two websites that have information for about 75 of the most commonly used nursing diagnoses that you can access for free:
  
  • http://www1.us.elsevierhealth.com/evolve/ackley/ndh7e/constructor/
    
  • http://www1.us.elsevierhealth.com/merlin/gulanick/constructor/index.cfm
    

for information on writing care plans see:

• https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/help-care-plans-286986.html - assistance - help with care plans