Need help with Nursing diagnosis

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Hi, I am in my first semester and have just begun clinicals. My instructor has asked me to write a psychosocial careplan for a pt. I only need one nursing diagnosis. I know where I would like to go with it but am not sure how to write my diagnosis. My pt is a 72 y/o female that has paralysis from an accident three years ago...she has a medical diagnosis of obesity and makes negative statements concerning her weight about herself while I care for her. I am thinking a good diagnosis would be SITUATIONAL LOW SELF-ESTEEM R/T FUNTIONAL IMPAIRMENT AEB PAITENT MAKES SEL-NEGATING STATEMENTS. It just doesn't seem quite right and I need help making it fit. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Personally? Since she's had a stroke & obese - although she may/does have low selfesteem - to me, this would not be a priority to her health, kwim?

If I had to choose 1...just 1 dx I would go with:

Risk for falls R/T physical impairment and limitation AEB patient's hx of stroke and obesity.

GL!

It has to be a psychosocial diagnosis...and she has not had a stroke I should have been more specific on why she is paralyzed...she substained a spinal cord injury by falling in her home, but thank you for your comment. :)

Lol - so much for reading quickly! Sorry - just re-read your post and obviously I only skimmed it and thought the paralysis was from a stroke.

Now that I have read it - I think your dx is good. Why the apprehension?

Well this only my second time to write a careplan and so I wasn't sure if it made since or was apprpriately written.

What clinical setting are you in? I'm assuming Pshyc?

I think it sounds good. I've written tons of medical dx's but not psychosocial as Pshyc is our last rotation this Summer so I'm not 100% if that's what your instructor is looking for but from the information you provided (and once I read it ;)) it's a solid dx!

This is my first semester of nursing school so we are still at the nursing homes...I think our instructor just wants us to practice using one diagnosis at a time...last week we did a physical diagnosis and eventually we will use multiple and have to prioritize them. Thank you so much. This is all so new to me so any suggestion helps. :)

Specializes in IMCU.
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