Huntington's Chorea care plan

[djnme2000]

This is my first careplan and I'm wokring on it but am a little confused. Has anyone else had to do a care plan on an Huntington's patient?

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

the construction of a care plan follows the steps of the nursing process. it all begins with the assessment of the patient. whether this is a real patient that you took care of or this is an assignment there is still assessment information that you must put together:

• a health history (review of systems)
  
• performing a physical exam
  
• assessing their adls (at minimum: bathing, dressing, mobility, eating, toileting, and grooming)
  
• reviewing the pathophysiology, signs and symptoms and complications of their medical condition
  
  • http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec16/ch221/ch221e.html - huntington's disease
    

  [*]reviewing the signs, symptoms and side effects of the medications/treatments that have been ordered and that the patient is taking

from the assessment information you make a list of what is abnormal. for example, jerky movements and difficulty swallowing is not normal but is something that you will find in huntington patients. these are abnormal data items that you will list and use to determine what the patient's nursing problems are. all nursing problems will have evidence, or proof, of them that is found during assessment. the second step of the nursing process is determining what those problems are and putting a name (nursing diagnosis) to them.

once you have done all the above, and believe me, that encompasses a great deal of time and work, you can then begin to develop your goals and nursing interventions aimed at the abnormal data (signs and symptoms) that support each of the nursing problems (nursing diagnoses).

you can see examples of how care plan construction is done on this thread: https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/help-care-plans-286986.html - help with care plans. if you need help, ask.