Nursing Care Plan Nightmare

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in Psych.

Please somebody help me with the pyschosocial aspect of a patient with pancreatitis I cant come up with anything other than self care deficit, feeding b/c he's NPO, but from there I'm stuck

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psychosocial would be his emotional health. Is he scared, is he in pain, is his family having trouble coping with his hospitalization? Without knowing anything else about your patient I can't suggest anything specific for you, but think about what effects his illness is having on his family, work, and emotional health.

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Is he worried about his health, about his recovery, or ongoing problems? Is he worried about cancer? Does he have financial concerns, will he be able to return to work?

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.
psychosocial would be his emotional health. Is he scared, is he in pain, is his family having trouble coping with his hospitalization? Without knowing anything else about your patient I can't suggest anything specific for you, but think about what effects his illness is having on his family, work, and emotional health.

Is he worried about his health, about his recovery, or ongoing problems? Is he worried about cancer? Does he have financial concerns, will he be able to return to work?

EXCELLENT responses!!!

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I agree with what was said above.

But I just wanted to point out self care deficit based soley on NPO status doesn't make much sense.

good luck

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

hi, carlab024, and welcome to allnurses! :welcome:

a care plan must follow the steps of the nursing process. it must be based upon your patient's symptoms. it's not enough to tell us that the patient has pancreatitis. you need to list out the symptoms that you discovered during your physical assessment and interview, what you observed as you worked with him and the information you obtained from doing a search of his medical record. you also need to read as much information as you can about pancreatitis--it's signs and symptoms (to make sure you didn't miss noticing any in your patient), how it is diagnosed, what tests are typically ordered (and look for them in his chart), what treatments and drugs are typically ordered, and what your responsibilities are as a nursing to carry out those treatments and orders. then, you can begin to put together a care plan.

nursing diagnoses are always based upon the symptoms (abnormal data) your patient is having. medical diagnoses, as well, are always based upon the symptoms a patient is having. for nursing diagnosing, the symptoms we look for are not only the same ones the doctors focus on, but also include patients responses to their diseases and conditions as well as their ability to perform their adls.

there are two sticky threads (these are earmarked threads that appear at the very top of the thread listings of any forum) on the student forums that have information on care planning. one of them has a complete listing of the psychosocial nursing diagnoses. still, you should be using a nanda nursing diagnosis reference of some kind to make sure you are diagnosing correctly. every nursing diagnosis has a list of signs and symptoms (nanda calls them defining characteristics) and before you assign any nursing diagnosis to a patient you should check to make sure that they have one of more of the symptoms listed under a nursing diagnosis. you should also double check the definition of the nursing diagnosis to make sure it is indeed the correct problem that the patient has.

if you still need help with this care plan, please list your patient's symptoms and abnormal data and i will help you determine what the nursing diagnoses are as well as give you further instruction on how to proceed with developing the goals and nursing interventions if you need.

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Specializes in Psych.

Oh ok I guess I should have given more info, Mr. R is 30 yrs old admitted w/ pancreatits, IDDM, and hypertension. Past medical hx includes IDDM, hypertension, UTI, and high cholesterol. His meds include Lovenox, Lopressor, and Protonix. Accucheck Q4 hours. He recieves TPN, Lipids, and Na via IV, he had a permacath but it has since been removed. For his physical I went with pain, chronic ( for his pancreatitis), and for his psychosocial I was thinking self care deficit- feeding b/c he complains of not being able to eat "real food". If there is a really good nursing care plan that you personally know of please give me the title since i'm currently in med surg this quarter and I have many more care plans to hand in.

Thanx for all your help.;)

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

what you've just given me is medical diagnoses and treatments that were ordered. those are not symptoms and abnormal data. a symptom is a change in the person's body or it's function. symptoms are either objective or subjective data that you collect during your assessment of the patient. they are not tpn, lipids or ivs. pain is a symptom, but where is it. tell me more about it.

no, there are no nursing care plans that i can tell you about. you need to learn how to do a care plan. you can't copy one and anyone would be doing you a disservice to hand one over to you. if you don't learn how to write a care plan, you'll never learn how to problem solve and learn to think critically. you need to learn these skills in order to eventually pass your nclex exam. i know it is painfully hard and slow going to do your first care plans, but so was learning to tie your shoes and ride a bike. it gets easier, but you have to put the effort into this.

you need to look up information about

  • pancreatitis
  • iddm
  • hypertension
  • high cholesterol

you are looking for information about their signs and symptoms and treatment. if you can't find that information in your nursing textbook you will find it in the weblinks on this thread:

then, i will repeat. . .please list your patient's symptoms and abnormal data and i will help you determine what the nursing diagnoses are as well as give you further instruction on how to proceed with developing the goals and nursing interventions if you need.

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Self care deficit related to eating would apply if the pt were not able to lift a spoon to his mouth or feed himself. It does not apply in a situation where a pt would be able to eat without assistance, but can't because it is contraindicated in his condition.

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Great post from Daytonite!

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