concept map - chief medical diagnosis question

Nursing Students Student Assist

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as I prepare a concept map (hypothetical client) with an admission

diagnosis that includes "possible carcinoma" - do I include this "possible carcinoma" or just the stated diagnosis in the Chief Medical Diagnosis box

(with the date of admission)?

There will be nursing diagnoses related to the "possible carcinoma".

But after the surgery, there is another diagnosis "benign tumor".

Obviously this changes the Chief Medical Diagnosis.

Is this additional information to be included in that Chief Medical Diagnosis box - with the date that it becomes known?

thanks

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
i just read through this thread on mapping as there was nothing like this when i went to nursing school.

thank you, daytonite, for your patience and the time you put in explaining this and other ideas in such great detail. i have never so much as laid eyes on one of these puppies, but after reading your descriptions, i feel like i have a grasp of at least the basics.

thanks for being such a terrific resource.

they are nursing's take on concept maps which are used in other fields. i saw concept mapping used by math teachers in a program on pbs a few years ago as they were teaching a class of kids one of the basic concepts of algebra. it was very interesting.

here is a thread where a couple of students posted examples of their nursing concept maps so you can see what a completed one looks like.

https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/concept-maps-155445.html

also pamela schuster has written a book on this for her students at youngstown state university in ohio. there is a website that explains how a care map (concept map) is constructed at this website: http://cord.org/txcollabnursing/onsite_conceptmap.htm

and, just to muck things up more in our profession, carpenito who is one of the care planning gurus has included the care path in some of her care plan books as another way of physically formatting a care plan. it is a day by day or stage by stage progression of all the medical and nursing interventions that are going to be done for the patient for their particular medical problem. some facilities use this care planning approach and from time to time i've seen a student or two posting about it.

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they are nursing's take on concept maps which are used in other fields. i saw concept mapping used by math teachers in a program on pbs a few years ago as they were teaching a class of kids one of the basic concepts of algebra. it was very interesting.

here is a thread where a couple of students posted examples of their nursing concept maps so you can see what a completed one looks like.

https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/concept-maps-155445.html

also pamela schuster has written a book on this for her students at youngstown state university in ohio. there is a website that explains how a care map (concept map) is constructed at this website: http://cord.org/txcollabnursing/onsite_conceptmap.htm

and, just to muck things up more in our profession, carpenito who is one of the care planning gurus has included the care path in some of her care plan books as another way of physically formatting a care plan. it is a day by day or stage by stage progression of all the medical and nursing interventions that are going to be done for the patient for their particular medical problem. some facilities use this care planning approach and from time to time i've seen a student or two posting about it.

i do remember carpenito and her little blue book. arrgghh.

i also recall how we sweated and worried our brains out doing care plans and were shocked to find that this wasn't how the real world functioned at all. i know the purpose is to teach people how to think like nurses, but most of the care plan-related assignments seem to complicate matters.

i wonder if there is a "care plans for dummies" book.

lest anyone think i'm speaking out of sour grapes, i did fantastically well with care plans. then was disappointed that this skill gave way to predetermined flow sheets and pathways.

maybe this aspect of nursing school is a good part obstacle course.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
I do remember Carpenito and her little blue book. Arrgghh.

I also recall how we sweated and worried our brains out doing care plans and were shocked to find that this wasn't how the real world functioned at all. I know the purpose is to teach people how to think like nurses, but most of the care plan-related assignments seem to complicate matters.

I wonder if there is a "Care Plans for Dummies" book.

Lest anyone think I'm speaking out of sour grapes, I did fantastically well with care plans. Then was disappointed that this skill gave way to predetermined flow sheets and pathways.

Maybe this aspect of nursing school is a good part obstacle course.

Shhhh! The last thing I did at work was update care plans, but don't tell anyone. I was on a care plan committee at one facility so I sort of HAD to make sure I was updating care plans. You should see the extensive whoppers they write for the patients in the nursing homes. When I first saw the "permanent" care plans at the last nursing home I worked in (this was only 4 years ago) my eyes almost popped out of my head. And, the nurse responsible for this also did the MDS reporting for 99 residents. Out on the LTC nursing units we had pre-printed one page care plan skeletons that we used for things like skin tears, falls, fevers, and diarrhea. Those did become part of the permanent chart, but got filed away once we were were through with them. I used to keep up the care plans for a nursing home many years ago, but they were nothing like they have evolved into today. 30 years ago, sans nursing diagnoses, you just wrote that the patient had a decubitus ulcer or were disoriented and wrote your nursing interventions to go with it.

As for "Care Plans for Dummies", I think that would be a million dollar idea. They have a website, I think it's dummies.com, where that could be checked. I thought I had seen someone write a small book titled Easy Care Plan Writing or something like that. When I look at the beginning chapters of some of these care plan books and the explanation of the nursing process I want to throw up. I don't know how a student being exposed to this stuff for the first time can possibly understand it on a first or even a second read through. Last summer I was trying to figure out an easier set of instructions to give students because this choice of nursing diagnoses comes up ALL THE TIME. It's obviously a stumbling block for a lot of students. However, my first attempts just weren't panning out like I had hoped. I keep copies of some of the explanations that I post and I will sometimes copy and paste parts of them into other replies I make. But I'm always thinking about how I can make the language a little easier or how I can find an analogy to help explain the concepts. It's frustrating.

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thanks for helping

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