Nursing Diagnoses?!?

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Hi everyone! I am an almost graduated nursing student in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I am trying to finish up this inter-relatedness paper for my medical/surgical critical care clinical and am having a set back with my nursing diagnoses section. If any of you could help I would utterly and totally be grateful!

Pt. is a 71 year old male who went into V-fib, passed out, and went into cardiac arrest. Shocked twice, epi and atropine given, CPR 10 minutes, then into A-fib. He was brought to the hospital to the ICU where he was on a ventilator, Foley catheter, two arterial lines with 6 IVs running (mostly pressors, heparin, analgesics), unresponsive/unconscious, reddened/opened area on back of head from fall, cool blankets to slow brain waves, ulcers on lower extremities, two skin tears on rt. arm/lt. leg. Hx of Diabetes, smoking, CAD, peripheral neuropathy, anemia, non-st elevation MI, end-stage renal failure, PAD, Obesity, sleep apnea, pulmonary edema.

Thank you for your time! I look forward to hearing from all of you! Take care!

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Specializes in Oncology.

I'm going to go ahead and say that I think most posters here are more willing to help if you put some of your ideas out there than to simply "do your homework" for you.

TBH, five diagnoses stick out to me already and I haven't thought about it for more than 30 seconds based on your report. Think about what your assessment is showing and how the nurse could independently resolve those issues. For some more help:

What are common risks associated with being on a ventilator?

What are risks (or in your patient's case, already present) for being on bed rest?

Honestly, I don't see how you are having trouble with this, your patient has a plethora of diagnoses. I could easily give them to you, but I think it's important for you to think it through yourself.

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Specializes in Oncology.

To add to this, I think I might see where you are getting caught up in the medical problems with this patient instead of thinking more holistically with where nursing care can come into play. Think simple. Think about what the patient is at risk for based on his current condition, and his history. I would start with what could possibly go wrong with every intervention/equipment piece and move from there.

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I appreciate your opinion...I am sorry if it sounded like I was asking for all the answers. That was totally not my intention and yes you were correct that I should have put the 7 diagnoses that I already had written down. I have a total of 19 now and am finishing up so thank you for your time on responding.

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Specializes in Oncology.

:) I'm glad you got so many. I looked at it and was like, "What, not even ONE based off of all that?????"

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