need help!!

[studentnurse2012]

Hi

I'm doing an assignment for a nursing class. It's not really a care plan, but similar. We had to interview a client about health determinants (education, income etc) and from that identify two priority nursing concerns. We then had to come up with health promotion interventions to address those concerns and descibe how we would evaluate the interventions.

The client i have chosen works 18 hrs a day so obviously my concern is fatigue. My goal for her is: On a scale of 1-10, client will report fatigue severity below a 7 within one month.

As i can't tell her to simply just get more sleep, i have focused on improving quality of sleep, so have interventions like:

- education on proper sleeping positions

- Referral to an occupational therapist to be educated in energy conservation techniques

- Monitoring of nutritional intake to ensure client is getting adequate energy

- Minimizing environmental stimuli when sleeping (distractions such as tv, lighting etc)

- Help in developing relaxation techniques before sleeping

- Education on benefit of sleep to body and body systems

The part i am having problems with is the evaluation of interventions. If the interventions are successful, then surely i will know because the goal will have been met? How do i evaluate each specific intervention? I can't exactly go to her house when she's sleeping and check her sleeping positions......

I'm having the same problem for my other concern..which relates to chronic back pain caused by heavy lifting at work. My intrventions include things like: education on proper posture/body mechanics when lifting etc etc. but how do i evaluate them?

This is my first year...so I'm looking for words from the wise!!

Thank You

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

you use the same assessment criteria you used to gather the initial information. your basis to choose the problems of fatigue and pain are based upon the abnormal data you collected during your interview. this data is, in effect, evidence of these problems. how do you know the problem is gone or different? the evidence has changed. how do you know how it has changed? re-assess. you don't evaluate each specific intervention until after the final assessment data is in. at the repeat interview with the patient you can ask if she feels any of the interventions have been useful or not. do another interview and ask the same questions to determine how has the data changed. if her fatigue was 8 on a scale of 1-10 when you first interviewed her and is now 5 after a month, you didn't achieve your goal, but the data did change and you used the same assessment tool to evaluate it. that's the scientific way to have done it. it keeps it fair and rational.

see this post on how to construct a goal statement: https://allnurses.com/forums/2509305-post158.html