pathophysiology of Prostate cancer concept map please ;)

CuriousMe · Dec 16, 2010

hey can anyone help me trace the pathophysiology of my patient's case? he has prostate cancer along with degenerative osteoarthritis, and pulmonary infiltrates in the left upper lung suggestive of pneumonia. please? thanks! God Bless! :))

A good start would be for you to post what you know already. I suspect you'll get more folks willing to help, if you start with what you know.

eloradannon · Sep 6, 2011

Did you ever figure this out? I'm trying to put together a similar concept map for prostate cancer, metastasis to bones, pleural effusion and anasarca.

allnurses Guide · Sep 6, 2011

There is kind of a "we will not do your homework for you" policy on this board. If you post more specific questions that outline what you already know and are working on under your own volition you are more likely to get someone willing to help you. Where exactly are you stuck?

eloradannon · Sep 7, 2011

I apologize. I would never want anyone to do my homework for me. I'm 2 weeks into my second semester and this is my first cancer pt. I'm looking to do a concept map with the start of the disease and ending with metastasis to bone and anasarca. I'm having trouble getting started. My pathophysiology texts only list etiology (exact cause unknown, but genetics, hormones, diet & viruses have been suggested) & risk factors (advanced age, ethnicity, etc.) I guess I don't know where to go from there....do I start at defects in cellular proliferation or differentiation>tumor>etc? Or should I start at the presence of a tumor and map the spread?

Also a second question, I asked the RN about the connection between cancer and anasarca and she could not remember what type of cell is "exploding" to cause this. Does anyone know what it's called so I could do more research?

Thank you for any input.

allnurses Guide · Sep 7, 2011

Well, all of what you are saying is medical, not nursing. What you need to look at is how all those things are affecting the client and what you, as a nurse, can do about his or her symptoms. A nursing concept map will have basic medical information on it including medications, lab results, diagnostics, culture, socio-economic factors, patient demographics etc. You then will outline the top nursing diagnoses affecting the patient right now. If the patient has pain, that is one of your diagnoses and you will set a goal regarding their pain, interventions you are going to do with the patient to relieve their pain (medications? nonpharmacologic interventions?) and then finally an evaluation on how those interventions did toward meeting the goal you set. Nausea and vomiting? You probably have evidence of impaired nutrition, less than body requirements that you can outline. Is the patient struggling with his/her diagnosis? You may have then nursing diagnoses such as Anxiety, Powerlessness, Fear. If their spouse or significant other or children are struggling, you may have Caregiver Role Strain.

You then use your care map to connect the dots as to how what is happening in the medical evidence (labs, diagnostic testing, the types of meds they are on and how they affect the body and one another, etc) to what is happening with the patient. You connect the dots to see the whole picture.

Look up NANDA diagnoses and go from there.