Help w/ Nursing Diagnosis!!!

[AJ28]

I have to come up with 4 care plans for my patient tomorrow. I don't usually have any trouble with this so I'm getting very frustrated. The pt has an abdominal wall abscess from a surgical scar. Pt has no abnormal vitals nor labwork. We have to come up with these the day before so we don't have a chance to do any kind of assesment to try and glean more information. Pt. is simply in the hospital waiting on nursing home placement from what the nurse told me. At least on of my NDs need to fit into a certain category (cardiac, PV, neuro, cancer, hematology, discharge planning or psychosocial) so I can do a concept map/care plan on it. Please help!!! I'm so lost! Thanks!

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

Did this patient have surgery? Potential complications of surgery can always be included in a care plan. Look up the definition of an abscess. It is an infected wound and can either be internal or external. That means that there is a wound that is being treated and the patient is probably on antibiotics. Why would you suppose the patient is going to a nursing home? Probably because they cannot do all their ADLs themself. If you have access to this patient's chart I would look very closely at the nurses notes to see exactly what the nursing staff has had to do for this patient. Look at the physician's orders, physician's progress notes and the doctor's history and physical exam on the patient. These documents contain a lot of assessment information that can be used to determine what the patient's nursing problems are.

[rachelgeorgina]

If he's waiting for nursing home placement maybe you can look into the psychosocial issues surrounding this? It's a huge change in not only living arrangements but way of life - and a lot of people see it as a dead end. He's probably going to need a lot of support for the transition.