Concept Care Maps/plan ugh!

hi all! I need some advice on where to go with this. This is my VERY FIRST concept care map/plan. my patient is an older patient in end of life care. He was put in end of life care b/c of he had bilateral stroke, Atrial fibrillation w/ RVR, Aspiration Pneumonia, Bilateral carotid stenosis, COPD, Dysphagia secondary to the stroke.

I have no idea what to use as a my nursing problem as I have no idea of what diagnosis to go off of. I was thinking maybe the Aspiration Pneumonia? but the patient is no longer on aspiration precautions. the only risk he is on is fall risk. which I thought about doing, but he is more likely to die from aspiration than falling (that is what my instructor said) since he is no long on aspiration precautions can I still do aspiration? WHere would you all go with this?

Thanks!

We are happy to help with homework but we will not do it for you.......I need more information before helping you. What semester are you? What care plan book do you have with the NANDA I taxotomy/definitions so you may make a correct diagnosis? What is this patients assessment..... I use Ackley: Nursing Diagnosis Handbook, 9th Edition and Gulanick: Nursing Care Plans, 7th Edition.

Care plans are all about the assessment OF THE PATIENT.....the whole patient. Just because someone is at the end of their life doesn't mean they don't have needs. If this was you loved one what would you want for them to be care for?

The medical diagnosis is the disease itself. It is what the patient has not necessarily what the patient needs. the nursing diagnosis is what are you going to do about it, what are you going to look for, and what do you need to do/look for first. From what you posted I do not have the information necessary to make a nursing diagnosis.

Care plans when you are in school are teaching you what you need to do to actually look for, what you need to do to intervene and improve for the patient to be well and return to their previous level of life or to make them the best you you can be. It is trying to teach you how to think like a nurse.

Think of the care plan as a recipe to caring for your patient. your plan of how you are going to care for them. how you are going to care for them. what you want to happen as a result of your caring for them. What would you like to see for them in the future, even if that goal is that you don't want them to become worse, maintain the same, or even to have a peaceful pain free death.

Every single nursing diagnosis has its own set of symptoms, or defining characteristics. they are listed in the NANDA taxonomy and in many of the current nursing care plan books that are currently on the market that include nursing diagnosis information. You need to have access to these books when you are working on care plans. You need to use the nursing diagnoses that NANDA has defined and given related factors and defining characteristics for. These books have what you need to get this information to help you in writing care plans so you diagnose your patients correctly.

Don't focus your efforts on the nursing diagnoses when you should be focusing on the assessment and the patients abnormal data that you collected. These will become their symptoms, or what NANDA calls defining characteristics. From a very wise an contributor daytonite.......make sure you follow these steps first and in order and let the patient drive your diagnosis not try to fit the patient to the diagnosis you found first.

Here are the steps of the nursing process and what you should be doing in each step when you are doing a written care plan:

ADPIE

1. Assessment (collect data from medical record, do a physical assessment of the patient, assess ADLS, look up information about your patient's medical diseases/conditions to learn about the signs and symptoms and pathophysiology)
   
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 diagnoses 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)
   

Care plan reality: The foundation of any care plan is the signs, symptom

s or responses that patient is having to what is happening to them. What is happening to them could be the medical disease, a physical condition, a failure to perform ADLS (activities of daily living), or a failure to be able to interact appropriately or successfully within their environment. Therefore, one of your primary goals as a problem solver is to collect as much data as you can get your hands on. The more the better. You have to be the detective and always be on the alert and lookout for clues, at all times, and that is Step #1 of the nursing process.

Assessment is an important skill. It will take you a long time to become proficient in assessing patients. Assessment not only includes doing the traditional head-to-toe exam, but also listening to what patients have to say and questioning them. History can reveal import clues. It takes time and experience to know what questions to ask to elicit good answers (interview skills). Part of this assessment process is knowing the pathophysiology of the medical disease or condition that the patient has. But, there will be times that this won't be known. Just keep in mind that you have to be like a nurse detective always snooping around and looking for those clues.

THese sheet may help you out.....daytonite made them (rip)

critical thinking flow sheet for nursing students

student clinical report sheet for one patient

A nursing diagnosis standing by itself means nothing. The meat of this care plan of yours will lie in the abnormal data (symptoms) that you collected during your assessment of this patient......in order for you to pick any nursing diagnoses for a patient you need to know what the patient's symptoms are. Although your patient isn't real you do have information available.

What I would suggest you do is to work the nursing process from step #1. Take a look at the information you collected on the patient during your physical assessment and review of their medical record. Start making a list of abnormal data which will now become a list of their symptoms. Don't forget to include an assessment of their ability to perform ADLS (because that's what we nurses shine at). The ADLS are bathing, dressing, transferring from bed or chair, walking, eating, toilet use, and grooming. and, one more thing you should do is to look up information about symptoms that stand out to you. What is the physiology and what are the signs and symptoms (manifestations) you are likely to see in the patient. did you miss any of the signs and symptoms in the patient? if so, now is the time to add them to your list. This is all part of preparing to move onto step #2 of the process which is determining your patient's problem and choosing nursing diagnoses. but, you have to have those signs, symptoms and patient responses to back it all up.

Care plan reality: What you are calling a nursing diagnosis is actually a shorthand label for the patient problem.. The patient problem is more accurately described in the definition of the nursing diagnosis.

Now tell me about your patient....what post op day is this, what meds are they on? What are their labs? What is their previous medical history? What are their labs? What do they complain of? What is your assessment? What is their skin color? DO they have a temp? Are they alert? What pain meds is this patient on? What were their baseline vitals? Did they have a large loss of blood intra-op? What would you be concerned about any post op?

Tell me about what your patient needs.

I put that disclaimer out there every time....:)

You only have to do one nursing diagnosis? what about confusion? Is this chronic or acute? Is it chronic with an acute worsening? What care plan book do you use. Where do you get your NANDA I taxotomy? The care plan is all about the patients needs based on your assessment. Have you assessed this patient? what did you find?

I can think of several ND based on the information you gave me....like

acute confusion, activity intolerance, Impaired Comfort Caregiver role strain, Chronic Confusion, Risk for compromised Human Dignity, Compromised family Coping, Impaired Memory, Impaired physical Mobility, Risk for ineffective cerebral tissue Perfusion, just to name a few....does your patient fit any of the defining characteristics that are defined by NANDA?