One of the deadliest forms of cancer is Leukemia that strikes almost anybody of all races around the globe. Leukemia occurs when the white blood cells proliferate to produce enormous number of abnormal cells which never matures to function normally.
These abnormal cells interfere with the integrity of the immune system to fight infection. To come up with a good nursing care plan (ncp), student nurses diagnose leukemia following the NANDA international format.
Effective nursing care plan relies on the knowledge of the nursing student on the disease entity. A student nurse has to diagnose leukemia with its signs and symptoms to
have a basis of making her/his nursing care plan. Signs and symptoms of leukemia are deemed important to know since it serves as a point of reference when making care plan.Although, signs and symptoms for each type of leukemia differs, it commonly includes weakness or persistent fatigue, shortness of breath with physical exertion, enlarged liver and spleen, swollen lymph nodes, easy bruising, prolonged
bleeding, nosebleeds, frequent infections, weight loss, and fever.So if the patient may tell the student nurse “I usually experience nosebleed and bruises but I believe it is nothing”. This statement would provide the nursing student a diagnosis that the patient has a poor knowledge of leukemia.
The student nurse has to make it a point to address the problem of deficit information to the patient to include it to her nursing care plan. With this, care of patients with leukemia would be quality.
Depending on the country a student nurse is having her/his practice, a nursing care plan (NCP) includes the following general features in a tabulated form; assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, rationale, and evaluation.
Effective NCP should not rely on medical diagnosis but rather on the diagnosis of the nurse or her own clinical judgment.
